Although there is no application pending before the Village of Mineola Board of Trustees, representatives of Gensel's Furniture Gallery and Metro Centers held a community meeting to discuss the latest plans for the shopping center, located north of Jericho Turnpike, between Herricks and Beebe Roads. Previous plans, which included the sale of Clarissa Road to the land developer Metro Centers, were turned down by the village's board of trustees. The community meeting, held last Wednesday, could mean that further plans for the site will eventually be submitted to the village board.

The last proposal, which was brought before the village board, included purchasing Clarissa Road and then building a new shopping center on the property with a new supermarket. Upon hearing that proposal, area residents who attended the public hearing for the planned, balked, causing the village board to deny the proposal.

The proposal that was discussed at last week's community meeting, however, did not include building a new shopping center, but renovating the existing one with new tenants. However, there would be no construction with regard to the shopping center, other than to approve its aesthetic look.

According to the new plan, Gensel's Furniture Gallery would sell its property to Metro Centers and then move into the shopping center building along with a restaurant. Metro Centers would then seek additional tenants for the shopping center. The Gensel's Furniture Gallery would then be torn down and a bank would be erected. The plan calls for no other construction other than the bank and does not include any plans for the Blockbuster video store.

However, Metro Centers is still seeking to buy Clarissa Road from the village so it does not have to split the parking lots, although getting the residents of the area and the village to go along with the sale will be difficult. "We're trying to work out a plan that will meet with the reasonable approval of the neighbors," said Metro Centers consultant Bruce Blakeman, the former presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature who was retained by Metro Centers to meet with the neighbors of the shopping center and perhaps eventually make a presentation to the board.

"On behalf of the owners of the shopping center, we realized we made a mistake by not meeting with the community ahead of the last [hearing] and it was a mistake to try to build a new supermarket in the corner next to the residential homes and we have completely abandoned that project. However, we are still desirous of acquiring Clarissa Road so that the two parking lots can be merged together," Blakeman said.

At the previous hearing for the sale of Clarissa Road, several residents complained about the upkeep of the property. Blakeman said his clients are prepared to spend significant amounts of money to upgrade the existing buildings, build a first class bank building where Gensel's is now and to provide additional buffers to residential areas with significant landscaping and provide routine maintenance to the parking lot and landscaped areas.

Richard Genzel of Genzel's Furniture Gallery said he has been offered a position in the shopping center so that Genzel's would occupy a portion of the center as well as full use of the basement so that the furniture gallery would have the same square footage with two floors as they have now with four floors.

As far as Clarissa Road goes, Genzel said it isn't important to the furniture gallery. "The road doesn't matter at all to us. We don't care whether it's there or they get it. We're not a big draw for cars," he said. "For some reason, they would prefer to have it."

Genzel said he has mixed feelings about the plan. While he said it is difficult to operate in the current Genzel's building since it is four floors, it does have sentimental value. His parents started operating Genzel's Furniture Gallery in the building in 1948. The business was then passed along to Richard Genzel, who ran it with his wife, and is now being run by their children.

Richard Genzel said he is negotiating with Metro Centers, but that nothing has been signed.