Town Board sees sake plans

Ambitious proposal for Keiser property

By Manor Ink Staff

Livingston Manor, NY – It appears that plans to develop the former Keiser Restaurant Equipment Co. property on the corner of Pleasant and Main Streets in the hamlet are moving forward.

On Jan. 18, representatives from the Keiser Redevelopment Project, the group behind the redevelopment effort, presented its vision for the three-acre property to the Town of Rockland Town Board. They proposed a complex centered around a sake brewery and tasting room that would also include shops, a restaurant and hotel, housing for workers, and open public spaces. Sake (often spelled “saki”) is a traditional Japanese wine made from fermented rice.

The property was originally purchased from Keiser in 2018 by internationally renowned New York restaurateur Bon Yagi.

The board was shown a layout of the complex’s various buildings as well as renderings of what they might look like from a number of vantage points at eye level. The project calls for retrofitting buildings that already exist on the site without the addition of new structures or the demolition of any already existing. The large warehouse on the property will contain the sake brewery, a tasting room and sake shop. Other buildings will offer retail space for stores or will provide living quarters for workers.

The grounds will also be landscaped, with a vacant plot on Main Street reserved for public use as open space. Parking for the complex will be provided in lots behind the main buildings and further down Pleasant Street.

In addition to the Keiser plot, Yagi has purchased another property and building on Pleasant Street that may become a Japanese restaurant.

The owner of several top Japanese restaurants in Manhattan, including Sobaya in the East Village, Bon Yagi is credited with helping to create what’s known as the city’s Little Tokyo. The New York Times has called him the “East Village ambassador for Japanese cuisine.”