What Might Have Been

Three years ago, the plan to relocate Lil' Deb's Oasis to 735-737 Columbia Street, the distinctive pitched roof building constructed in 1935 as a Pure Oil gas station, was presented to the Planning Board and the Historic Preservation Commission for review.   

The HPC granted a certificate of appropriateness to the project in April 2023, one month after its initial presentation. The review by the Planning Board continued on through all of 2023 and well into 2024, and site plan approval was never granted.

In April 2024, Carla Perez-Gallardo, the chef/owner of Lil' Deb's Oasis, announced they would not pursue Restore New York funding because they did not want to compete with the Hudson Housing Authority, which was seeking Restore New York funding for its redevelopment project. (Restore New York refunding requires sponsorship from the municipality, and a municipality can sponsor only one project each year.) As it turned out, the HHA project did not qualify for Restore New York funding, and Lil' Deb's sacrifice was in vain.

Last December, Perez-Gallardo announced she was stepping away from the restaurant at the end of 2025 and was seeking a buyer for the restaurant, which would continue to operate at 747 Columbia Street under the management of its current staff. At the time, Gossips wondered what would become of the plans to relocate the restaurant to 325-327 Columbia Street. 

Today, Gossips learned that Lil' Deb's Oasis has withdrawn its application for site plan approval, first presented in January 2023, from the Planning Board, because the project was determined to be no longer feasible.

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