Multi-tenant plan for former Mast site

By MARTIN WILBUR

The storefront at 92 South Moger Ave., Mount Kisco, where Mast Brothers operated until 2023. MARTIN WILBUR PHOTO

The property owner whose building was damaged by a 2023 fire that forced Mast Brothers Chocolate from its Mount Kisco home has presented a plan to divide the space and rent to four separate businesses.

Applicant 219 Jay Street LLC presented its conceptual drawings to the village’s Planning Board Tuesday evening for the 8,700-square-foot site at 92 South Moger Ave. Architect William Bialosky said the owner already has agreements in place to rent to a yoga studio for the area that is at the eastern end of the building and a bakery and a small café on the western side. There are attempts underway to fill the two stores in the middle, he said.

Bialosky said the plan was to have multiple tenants because it is difficult to find one business to take over such a large space.

“We’ve reconstructed the interior after the fire, which, as you know, is why this building has sat empty for the last two years,” Bialosky said. “We have not been able to identify a single-tenant user that would take the entire 8,700 square feet, and we believe this is a better use both for the town and for the building to have multiple tenants in this space.”

The total area for the yoga studio, which includes a reception and waiting area and a small retail space, is 2,715 square feet while the bakery and café would take up 1,840 square feet. The two middle stores would be 1,565 and 1,430 square feet. Bialosky said there would be no increase to the footprint of the building.

Along with the subdivision of the building, the request for a separate entrance for each of the four establishments is why Planning Board approval is needed, said board Co-chair Michael McGuirk. He said the changes proposed are fairly minor. There is also no first-floor parking requirement in the Central Business District.

“I think it makes sense,” McGuirk said of the proposal. “I think it could be a positive change for that end of Moger, South Moger, because the single use before was relatively popular, but having four separate uses, all with their own potential to be popular on their own, could drive a little more traffic to that end of the village, and I think that would be favorable.”

There is currently masonry on the front of the building, but the new proposal would reintroduce glass and aluminum, Bialosky said, designed to match the former Mast Chocolate entrance. The doors for each business would be in the same locations as the existing steel headers, according to the applicant’s submission to the Architectural Review Board.

The board was concerned about the ingress and egress to the building related to fire safety, particularly for the future tenants of the two middle spaces and if there should be a fire toward the front. 

“Let’s call it a safety precaution,” board member Michael Bonforte said of the steps to ensure greater fire safety. “I’m just throwing it out there because fires do happen, as we know.”

Bialosky said for the yoga studio the code requires the largest diagonal distance to have exits opposite each other. That will be presented to the Building Department, he said.

A representative for the applicant, Cassandra Dillenberger, said the building will also have a sprinkler system, which it previously lacked.

Architectural Review Board approval will be needed for the project along with Planning Board approval for an amended site plan.

Mast Chocolate, which received its Planning Board approval in 2018 and opened at the location the following year, was displaced following the devastating October 2023 fire that severely damaged the store and chocolate-making operation. Mast has since relocated to Bedford Village, reopening as Mast Market.