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It was not sentiment, but his own seasoned business sense, that primed Peter Aschkenasy four years ago to purchase downtown Brooklyn's landmark restaurant, Gage & Tollner.
Reflecting today on the 113-year-old establishment, which he refurbished to underscore its 1880s flair, Aschkenasy reaffirms how the prospects for his restaurant's future rests with its past. Old is good, he says. Old is hot. Old is big business, particularly if it is old that is landmarked to ensure its preservation, as Gage & Tollner has been since its designation in 1974 by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.
"In the marketplace, the fact that you have a landmarked restaurant, the oldest restaurant, one with antiquities that relate to why it is landmarked, only makes it a more desirable destination," Aschkenasy said recently.
He believes its contrast to the emergent modern-day renaissance of Brooklyn's downtown, just outside his door at 372 Fulton St., only serves to further underscore the soundness of this investment. To Aschkenasy, Gage & Tollner is more than just a stylish place to dine; it has evolved into a distinctive source of sustenance to nourish nearby business developments.
"Certainly, if you look at the early literature of MetroTech," he said, "among the things listed to entice people out, there's not a piece of literature that doesn't talk about Gage & Tollner. There must be a reason for this."
Landmarking, however, was not designed to be an economic development spur. Despite the fact that urban planners and developers often successfully harness landmarking's benefits - which can include tax credits, loans and grants - city and federal landmark officials take pains to stand distinctly apart from bottom-line business issues.
"We landmark based on historical, architectural and cultural significance. Economic development isn't even something that we get into," said Tracie Rozhon, director of communications for the landmarks commission.
"We can't designate in order to try and bring about revitalization," added Merin Urban, the commission's executive director.
There are business and property owners who would sigh in relief at hearing that: They view landmarking, with its array of restrictions on a building's use or structural change, as a virtual death knell to profits and progress.
Nonetheless, landmarking helps enhance commercial development in areas struggling with...