$600,000 total available for Suffolk County downtown projects
Applications open Feb. 19; submission deadline is May 15
Eligible projects include sidewalks, parking, lighting, renovations and accessibility upgrades
Municipalities must partner with local organizations to apply
Suffolk County is offering a total of $600,000 in grants to support capital projects in or near downtown areas on municipally owned property. The application process for the Downtown RevitalizationGrant Program opens Thursday, Feb. 19, with submissions due by May 15.
“Suffolk County’s downtowns are the heart and soul of our region, and we are committed to help our local municipalities and community partners prosper and help attract new visitors to spur our local economy,” Ed Romaine, the county executive, said in a news release about the program.
“The County Downtown Revitalization Program not only serves as one of our legacy grant programs, but it signifies our commitment to continuously invest in our communities,” he added.
In partnership with local municipalities, organizations representing downtown areas – including business improvement districts, chambers of commerce, civic and historical associations, beautification societies, and local development corporations – are eligible to apply. Award recipients will be selected by the Suffolk County Downtown Revitalization Citizens Advisory Panel through a competitive process.
Towns or villages partnering with a community organization must pass a resolution supporting the joint project. Projects must be capital in nature and have a significant, sustainable impact that enhances economic activity.
Eligible projects include public parking facilities, curb and sidewalk construction, pedestrian walkways, street lighting, public restrooms, accessibility improvements, renovations to existing structures and cultural facilities.
Eligible projects must be capital improvements with a minimum funding request of $10,000, involve a municipal partnership, be located on municipally owned property in or adjacent to a downtown, and have a lifespan of at least 15 years.
The Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning will host an informational session for potential applicants on Wednesday, March 11. Details, including the application and guidelines, are available here.
Voters backed incumbents who stood for progress over fear-based opposition
This past June, Republican primaries in the townships of Huntington and Smithtown offered more than a snapshot of political contests. They offered a lesson in what happens when Long Island’s business community speaks with one voice on issues that matter to working families.
In both towns, the incumbents supported responsible development projects—Huntington’s Melville Town Center Overlay District and Smithtown’s Kings Park revitalization—designed to provide workforce housing and reinvigorate local downtowns. Their challengers opposed these plans, framing them as threats to “quality of life.” We all know that phrase. Too often, it’s used not to protect communities, but to stir fears and sow misinformation.
For decades, the perception has been that business interests and community interests are at odds. That it’s “us versus them.” But these projects are not about profits over people. They are about repurposing already-developed land to serve middle-class families: Creating affordable housing options for young workers and empty nesters, bringing vibrancy back to local downtowns and generating jobs in the construction trades.
That’s why a coalition of Long Island’s leading business organizations—the Long Island Builders Institute, HIA-LI, the Long Island Association, the Association for a Better Long Island, the Long Island Contractors Association and the Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island—joined together to advocate for these projects. In doing so, they helped differentiate the candidates for voters, clarifying who stood for progress and who relied on fear-based opposition.
Our message was straightforward: Responsible development creates opportunity. It strengthens local economies, addresses Long Island’s pressing housing shortage and improves quality of life. In Kings Park, revitalization would breathe new life into a community that has struggled since the closure of the psychiatric center nearly three decades ago. In Melville, the overlay district would transform underused commercial space into a walkable hub of housing and business—exactly the kind of planning that younger residents and employers alike are asking for.
In the end, voters listened. Huntington Supervisor Ed Smyth described the outcome as a “victory of truth over lies.” Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim emphasized his pride in continuing to make his town “a wonderful place to raise a family.” Their words captured what the results proved: When the conversation is grounded in real solutions rather than scare tactics, residents respond.
The lesson here is larger than any one race. For too long, Long Island’s business groups have worked in parallel, each advancing important causes but not always in alignment. This time, we joined forces. And in doing so, we amplified our impact. Power in numbers is not a new idea—but in practice, it is too rarely used. The June primaries showed what can happen when we harness it.
Looking ahead, Long Island still faces deep challenges: A shortage of workforce housing, an aging infrastructure and the need to retain young talent while supporting middle-class families. Meeting these challenges requires thoughtful planning and the political will to pursue it. It also requires continued collaboration among the business organizations that represent employers, developers, contractors and brokers.
We’ve seen that when we put aside silos and unite around shared priorities, our voices carry further. More importantly, our communities benefit. The Huntington and Smithtown primaries remind us that voters, when given the facts, support progress. As business leaders, it’s our responsibility to keep working together—to advocate for policies that create housing, jobs, and opportunity—and to ensure that Long Island remains a place where the next generation can build their future.
Terri Alessi-Miceli is president and CEO of HIA-LI.
Mike Florio serves as CEO of the Long Island Builders Institute.
$500M revitalization to bring 630 housing units, shops, and civic space
Plan backed by community at Brookhaven Town Hall hearing
Projected $5.7M in annual property tax revenue after completion
Redevelopment to create over 900 jobs during ongoing operations
Some 250 people packed Brookhaven Town Hall Thursday evening where a public hearing for an ambitious plan to redevelop about 40 acres in Mastic Beach drew mostly support.
The $500 million Neighborhood Road Revitalization project is helmed by Jericho-based Beechwood Organization, which was designated as master developer for the plan by the Town of Brookhaven in Oct. 2021. The proposed redevelopment, which covers most of Neighborhood Road and Commack Road between Maywood Road and Doris Drive, would create a mixed-use downtown area with up to 630 housing units, 133,600 square feet of commercial space, and 34,000 square feet of community/civic space, in which the existing library and ambulance company would remain.
Questions and comments from speakers at the hearing focused on traffic concerns and help for existing businesses.
“This is exactly the kind of dialogue we need,” Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico said in a town statement. “Hearing directly from residents helps us build a plan that reflects the real needs of the neighborhood.”
Courtesy of Town of Brookhaven
The town conducted a blight study of 140 parcels along Neighborhood Road and surrounding streets in 2019, which confirmed that the area had enough blight, code violations and obstacles that have deterred meaningful private investment in the area. In Nov. 2022, the town unveiled a proposed master plan that aimed to transform the area into a walkable and vibrant downtown, with new housing, retail shops, restaurants, services and public gathering spaces.
Eric Alexander, director of Vision Long Island, which has worked on two previous plans for the Mastic Beach area, said he is happy to see this project move forward.
“Great to see robust turnout for the Mastic Beach revitalization plan. Community and business leaders have been working for decades to see the type of public and private investment the redevelopment will bring,” Alexander told LIBN. “The development team and town officials spent time through this process answering questions and adapting the plan to meet local needs. This community has been waiting a long time for this type of investment, and they are very deserving.”
According to the project’s draft environmental impact statement, the plan creates six subdistricts, including a Neighborhood Subdistrict that would allow townhomes; a Main Street Subdistrict for mixed-use buildings with ground-floor commercial/retail space and second-floor residential and/or commercial space; a Gateway Mixed-Use Subdistrict for mixed-use and multifamily buildings up to 35 feet high; a Downtown Mixed-Use Subdistrict that would allow multifamily residential buildings up to 50 feet high with commercial uses on the ground floor; a Civic Subdistrict for cultural uses, community spaces, educational facilities, and emergency service facilities; and a Parks Subdistrict for open, outdoor, active and passive public space.
The plan projects a significant increase in property tax revenue, rising from the current tax revenue of just over $800,000 per year to more than $5.7 million annually, of which more than $3.4 million would go to the William Floyd School District, according to the DGEIS.
Following construction, the redevelopment is expected to create 680 jobs in the redevelopment area, with an indirect and induced impact of nearly 250 jobs, bringing the total employment impact to 928 total jobs during annual operations.
Beechwood will need some time to assemble the 143 parcels in the redevelopment area, so construction on the project isn’t expected to begin 2027. The total redevelopment is projected to take four years to complete.
Public comments on the project are still being accepted by the town until Sept. 29.
After decades of neglect, Kings Park’s underperforming downtown is finally on the road to recovery. It’s been a long time coming.
A row of vacant stores along Kings Park’s Main Street. / Photo by David Winzelberg
Once a thriving downtown along Route 25A, Kings Park was hurt by the closing of the Kings Park Psychiatric Center in the 1990s. Some 2,500 jobs were lost, and many merchants never recovered from the exodus of all those customers. Today Main Street is still dotted with vacant storefronts.
After a few plans for housing and other commercial development at the sprawling psych center fizzled because of community opposition, Kings Park stakeholders decided to focus their attention to revitalizing their long-suffering downtown.
Guided by community planning group Vision Long Island and months of meetings that began in 2015, a coalition of residents, civic leaders and business owners created a 66-page action plan that called for new zoning to allow for rental apartments and mixed-use developments around the Kings Park Long Island Rail Road station.
A vacant lot on Kings Park’s Main Street. / Photo by David Winzelberg
Nine years later, the Town of Smithtown has incorporated most of those recommendations in the new Kings Park Downtown Revitalization Master Plan, which the town board expects to adopt by the end of the year. And though the new plan comes with zoning changes that pave the way for a revitalized downtown, new development couldn’t be possible without Kings Park’s expanded sewer system, funded by $25 million in public money and on track to be completed ahead of schedule later this year.
“Sewers are the key. I don’t care what anybody says. You will not revitalize a business district unless you have sewer mains because they can’t operate off of antiquated septic systems,” Ed Wehrheim, Smithtown supervisor and longtime Kings Park resident, told LIBN. “There was a time when people said to me ‘you’ll never get Kings Park sewered and you’ll never be able to do any revitalization of the business district.’ And now we’ve proved that we were tenacious and kept working with our other government partners and as we speak, the sewer mains are being installed throughout Main Street. They’re expected to be completed sometime in late November of this year.”
The proposed downtown zoning changes in the Kings Park master plan would allow for about 375 units of new multifamily housing, while limiting building heights to three stories. The master plan also aims to improve pedestrian safety and implement traffic calming measures, establish a façade improvement program, create new public spaces and more.
An oil storage and distribution property just south of the Kings Park LIRR station is listed as an opportunity site in the Kings Park master plan. / Photo by David Winzelberg
“The new master plan is the product of years and years of work on behalf of the Town of Smithtown, the consultants that they hired, numerous public meetings where the town had solicited input from the residents and experts alike to try and come up with a path that makes our downtown more sustainable and bring it up to where it needs to be today as opposed to what made a successful downtown 50 years ago,” said Tony Tanzi, president of the Kings Park Chamber of Commerce. “Having a dense collection of residences within walking distance of the downtown makes it so that you can have a built-in consumer base that doesn’t need to drive there and take up valuable parking on Main Street to actually utilize the businesses.”
Certainly, a crowning achievement that will accelerate Kings Park’s revitalization efforts is the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant awarded by the state in January. Wehrheim said the town is currently holding local planning committee meetings to determine which downtown projects will be funded with the DRI grant. All in all, the trifecta of sewers, new zoning and state dollars will spur private investment that should usher in a new reign of prosperity for Kings Park’s downtown.
“Hundreds of Kings Park residents and business owners came together to shape a downtown revitalization plan that included sewers, walkable streets, new restaurants, additional parking and modest housing options by the train station,” said Eric Alexander, director of Vision Long Island. “The sewers are under construction, additional parking has been provided, the first housing development is going through the planning process and the $10 million New York State DRI grant will assist implementing other elements of the plan. While the process has taken longer than planned, much of what the community wanted is getting done.”
Rendering of the 50-unit apartment development proposed for Kings Park. / Courtesy of Terwilliger & Bartone
The new Kings Park master plan, which is still going through its environmental review process, identifies “opportunity sites,” suggesting where new development projects might be located. Those include a municipal parking lot on Main Street across from the Kings Park Fire Department headquarters; the Kings Park Plaza shopping center on Indian Head Road; and a home heating oil storage and distribution facility on Meadow Road.
Another opportunity site listed in the master plan is the Tanzi Plaza shopping center, where a new $22 million apartment project has already been pitched. Farmingdale-based developer Terwilliger & Bartone Properties has proposed to build a 46,000-square-foot building that will have 50 apartments on the site of a long-shuttered restaurant on the west side of the shopping center, just steps away from the Kings Park LIRR station.
And there will likely be more to come.
“I think within the next two years, maybe a little sooner, we should really start to see some real nice downtown revitalization improvement,” Wehrheim said. “People are going to invest in those properties, because once those sewers come in, the properties become more valuable, and they have the ability to expand restaurants and things of that nature. We’re pretty excited about it.”
After Heatherwood Luxury Rentals received economic incentives from the Town of Riverhead Industrial Development Agency last week, the developer is planning to move ahead with its $82 million mixed-use project on East Main Street.
The Commack-based developer plans to construct a five-story, 238,342-square-foot building on the 1.42-acre vacant site once occupied by a Sears store at 203-213 East Main St.
Courtesy of Heatherwood Luxury Rentals
The project will bring 52 studios, 80 one-bedroom and 33 two-bedroom market-rate apartments over about 5,700-square-feet of retail space. Amenities will include a clubroom, fitness center and rooftop terrace.
The Heatherwood development would be constructed next door to another five-story mixed-use development called Riverview Lofts, which was completed in March 2021. That $56.8 million project, from Jericho-based Georgica Green Ventures, brought 116 affordable apartments over 12,000 square feet of commercial space, where about 6,500 square feet is occupied by Peconic County Brewing.
The Heatherwood project will generate about 150 construction jobs and three permanent jobs, according to its IDA application. Once completed, the development, which was approved by the town board in Oct. 2023, is expected to generate some $7.5 million in annual economic output to the town.
The planned development is another in a series of successful downtown revitalization projects that Riverhead has welcomed in the last several years. Construction is projected to take from 24 to 36 months to complete, however, the developer is still awaiting some approvals before work can begin.
“The IDA approval was a meaningful step in the entitlement process,” said Sean Sallie, Heatherwood’s senior director of planning and development. “There is some more work to do before we can put a shovel in the ground, and we are hopeful that we can get there.”
Heatherwood also received economic incentives from the Town of Hempstead IDA for its $212 million mixed-use development in West Hempstead, which like its Riverhead project, also replaces a former retail use. The two-building, 481,089-square-foot complex is currently under construction on the 9.4-acre former site occupied by National Wholesale Liquidators at 111 Hempstead Turnpike.
The West Hempstead transit-oriented development will bring 428 apartments and 5,575 square feet of retail space. Amenities will include indoor and outdoor fitness areas, golf simulator, gaming lounge and bar, and a 2-acre landscaped courtyard and that project is expected to be completed in 2027.
Suffolk County is now accepting applications for its $500,000 Downtown Revitalization Grant Program.
The grants are available to help fund capital projects on municipally owned property in or adjacent to downtown areas and recipients will be selected by the county’s Downtown Revitalization Citizens Advisory Panel following a competitive application process.
“This important economic development program continues to support the creation of the vibrant, walkable downtown areas that are vital to our regional economy,” Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said in a county statement. “We look forward to another round of quality investments in partnership with our local towns, villages and community organizations.”
Eligible projects include public parking facilities, curb and sidewalk construction, pedestrian walkways, street lighting, public restrooms, disabled accessibility, renovations to existing structures, and cultural facilities. The project must be a capital improvement project and funding requests must be for at least $10,000. The prospective grant recipient must partner with a municipality and the project needs to be located on municipally owned property in or adjacent to a downtown, and the project lifespan must be at least 15 years, according to the statement.
Grant applicants must be organizations that represent a downtown area, including business improvement districts, chambers of commerce, civic associations, historical societies, beautification societies, and local development corporations, and must partner with their local municipality.
Applications for the grant program, which can be found in the Economic Development and Planning section of the county website, are due by 4 p.m. on Friday, May 17.
The Village of Amityville has extended the deadline for businesses to apply for its $600,000 Façade Improvement Program.
The application window for the program now runs until 4 p.m. on Friday, March 1.
The program is funded by part of the $10 million state Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant that Amityville was awarded in Jan. 2022.About $5 million of the village’s DRI grant is going toward streetscape and pedestrian improvements, with the balance used for revitalizing the area around its LIRR station, assisting the development of a mixed-use building, renovations of existing buildings and the storefront rehab effort.
This storefront revitalization fund will provide grants to renovate building exteriors within the downtown Amityville area. Upgrades that adhere to the village character and may include façades, entrances, awnings, lighting, signage and more, according to a village statement.
The total of $600,000 in funding includes $300,000 for large projects of $25,000 to $100,000; $100,000 for small projects of $5,000 to $25,000; and $100,000 for building murals. Those eligible for the funding include business owners, nonprofits, and commercial property owners within the village’s designated DRI boundaries.
The program is a competitive reimbursement grant, and the scoring process is done by a review committee. Applicants must show their ability to cover the costs of their project and awardees will be reimbursed 80 percent upon completion.
Applications and more information on the Amityville Façade Improvement Program can be found at amityvilledri.com.
A new $20 million apartment development is planned to replace a long-vacant restaurant building in Kings Park.
Farmingdale-based developer Terwilliger & Bartone Properties has proposed to build a 61,356-square-foot building that will have 50 apartments on the site of a shuttered restaurant at 30 Indian Head Road in the Tanzi Plaza shopping center. The development site is located just steps away from the Kings Park Long Island Rail Road station.
The rental complex, to be called Cornerstone Kings Park, will bring six studio apartments, 35 one-bedroom apartments and nine two-bedroom apartments. Rents have not been set, however, five of the apartments will be designated as affordable and offered at reduced rates.
Amenities will include a clubroom, fitness center, virtual entry system, elevator and trash valet service.
Islandia-based GRCH Architecture is designing the project, and its civil engineer is Huntington-based R&M Engineering.
The project, the first pitched for Kings Park’s ongoing revitalization effort, was conceived in 2018 when the Town of Smithtown completed a comprehensive plan for Kings Park’s downtown following community visioning sessions led by the Kings Park Chamber of Commerce, the Kings Park Civic Association and Vision Long Island. But the development wouldn’t have been possible without Suffolk County’s expansion of the Kings Park sewer system that is currently underway.
The apartment plan still needs to go through the town’s approvals process. The developer will be holding an open house on the project from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 7, at VFW Post 5796 at 40 Church St. in Kings Park.
“We’re very excited. This has been a long time coming for Kings Park,” said Anthony Bartone, a principal of Terwilliger & Bartone Properties. “We’re proud to be the first project in the ongoing revitalization of Kings Park’s downtown.”
The Town of Smithtown has chosen Tritec Real Estate as master developer for a transit-oriented development plan for part of its downtown.
East Setauket-based Tritec was one of several development firms that responded to a request for qualifications that the town issued in the spring to “conduct a study and formulate a transit-oriented development (TOD) plan for the revitalization of a portion of downtown Smithtown.”
The town’s draft Comprehensive Plan released in 2019, recommended creating a TOD zone between the Long Island Rail Road tracks and Manor Road, bordered by Landing Avenue. It also recommended multifamily housing development on the north side of the tracks “to serve as a transition” between Smithtown’s downtown and the single-family residential neighborhood.
In addition to the planning efforts, a Suffolk County project to connect Smithtown’s downtown with the county’s Sewer District #6 in Kings Park will be an integral piece to revitalizing the area. Once completed, it will increase wastewater capacity to allow expansion of restaurants and businesses and pave the way for new multifamily developments.
It’s possible that Tritec will also be involved in Smithtown’s planned sewer expansion, since it has prior experience working with municipalities on wastewater infrastructure. The company built the Town of Brookhaven Sewer District #1 that feeds the 1 million-square-foot Stony Brook Technology Center, as well as Brookhaven’s Sewer District #2 at the 80-acre Brookhaven Technology Center in Shirley. Most recently, Tritec brought 1.5 million gallons of wastewater capacity to its Station Yards project and surrounding community in Ronkonkoma.
“We are incredibly excited about the opportunity to work on the continued revitalization of Smithtown’s Main Street,” said Chris Kelly, Tritec’s vice president of marketing. “Many Tritec employees live in the town and care deeply about the community. We will bring the same passion and energy that we have been able to bring to other Long Island downtowns, work closely with all of the stakeholders, help the town realize its vision, and generate investment and economic activity in the downtown.”
For more than a decade, Tritec has spearheaded the development of transit-oriented multifamily housing projects that have helped downtown revitalization efforts on Long Island. Its first was New Village, a $112 million mixed-use project that brought 291 apartments and 45,000 square feet of retail to the Village of Patchogue and has served as a catalyst for the village’s downtown revitalization.
After New Village, Tritec built the $45 million, 112-unit Shipyard at Port Jeff Harbor, which opened in 2017; and the $103 million, 260-unit rental complex called The Wel in Lindenhurst, which opened in 2021. Just this week, the company welcomed the first move-ins at its 418-unit Shoregate apartment development in downtown Bay Shore.
Currently, Tritec is deep into its $1.2 billion Station Yards project aimed at revitalizing some 53 acres around the Ronkonkoma LIRR station into a vibrant walkable mixed-use community. When completed, the development will have 1,450 apartments, 195,000 square feet of retail space, and 360,000 square feet of office space.
Two Baldwin development projects will receive economic incentives from the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency.
The two projects, part of an ongoing effort to revitalize the area’s downtown, include a $106 million, 59,342-square-foot mixed-use development from Garden City-based Breslin Realty and a $16 million, 32,504-square-foot workforce apartment complex from Rochester-based Park Grove Development and the Community Development Corp. of Long Island.
The Breslin project will bring a five-story building with 215 rental units over 5,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space to a 1.8-acre site at the southeast corner of Grand Avenue and Sunrise Highway across from the Baldwin Long Island Rail Road station.
The mixed-use development, which replaces a former car storage facility, will bring a mix of 47 studio apartments, 132 one-bedrooms and 36 two-bedroom units, with 21 offered as workforce housing with reduced rents. The project will also feature parking for 251 vehicles and a park that would link Grand Avenue with Sunrise Highway.
Rendering of the Baldwin Commons workforce apartment project. / Courtesy of Park Grove Development and CDCLI
The other IDA-assisted project, dubbed Baldwin Commons, will bring 33 workforce apartments—27 one-bedroom units and 6 two-bedroom units—in a four-story building on a half-acre property at 785 Merrick Road, replacing a vacant diner and auto storage yard.
Amenities at Baldwin Commons will include a fitness room, laundry and a community room on the ground floor. The apartments will be leased to renters earning 60 percent of the area median income, with about 30 percent earmarked for seniors.
The two projects will be the first in a zoning overlay called the Grand Avenue Urban Renewal Area, that was created by the town in 2008 to encourage investment and redevelopment.
“These two projects will provide multiple benefits to the town,” Fred Parola, CEO of the Hempstead IDA, said in a written statement. “In addition to serving as a catalyst that will bring much-needed change to Baldwin and increased economic activity in the community, it will remove long-time eyesores, alleviate a shortage of rental housing in the town, and provide increase revenues to the various taxing jurisdictions.”
The Breslin project received a sales tax exemption, mortgage recording tax exemption, and a 30-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement from the IDA. Current taxes on the unimproved site are $105,034 and the new development will ultimately add $2.4 million annually to the tax base by the end of the proposed 30-year PILOT. Tax payments over the life of the proposed PILOT agreement will total $34.4 million, compared with $5.2 million that would be collected without the project.
Baldwin Commons received a 20-year PILOT with an option for a 10-year extension if the project remains in compliance with terms of the benefits package, which include the PILOT and mortgage recording tax and sales tax exemptions. Annual taxes on the site are currently $28,939 and will rise to $85,661 after 30 years, according to the IDA statement.
The Village of Valley Stream is launching a program to assist small business owners to rehab their storefronts.
Businesses located along Rockaway Avenue between Sunrise Highway and Merrick Avenue are eligible for grant funding to cover 80 percent of the cost of new signs, lights and awnings.
“Through the pandemic, the village has been helping our local businesses with outdoor dining, events, and outreach for local grant programs and other assistance,” Valley Stream Mayor Ed Fare said in a written statement. “This sign program will directly assist local shops that seek to reinvest in their business to continue revitalizing our Rockaway Avenue business district.”
Funds for the program are made available through the Nassau County Office of Community Development.
“Valley Stream businesses have been very resilient, but additional help to give a fresh look to their signs and facades can help attract new customers and keep existing shoppers patronizing our brick-and-mortar stores,” Sasan Shavanson, president of the Valley Stream Chamber of Commerce, said in the statement.
Elissa Kyle, placemaking director for Vision Long Island, said beautification in a downtown isn’t just about aesthetics, but also about creating an inviting environment with a strong sense of place that people are attracted to.
“This sign and façade program will help improve the public realm along Rockaway Avenue and create a place where shoppers want to come and linger,” Kyle said in the statement. “The more time people spend in a place, the more money they tend to spend, supporting the local businesses and adding to the vitality of downtown Valley Stream.”
Businesses interested in applying for the storefront improvement grants are advised to contact the village’s Office of Community Development.
A Woodbury-based developer has closed on property purchases that clear the way for its planned $50 million transit-oriented development near the Hicksville Long Island Rail Road station.
Questus Capital, headed by Rob DiNoto and Paul Posillico, has acquired three adjacent office buildings and a nearby medical office building as part of the company’s assemblage of properties at the 1.6-acre redevelopment site.
The development firm purchased the 35,455-square-foot, four-story office building on .23 acres at 76 North Broadway; the 18,000-square-foot, three-story office building on .46 acres at 80 North Broadway; and the 7,500-square-foot, two-story office building on .39 acres at 82 North Broadway for $8.2 million.
In addition, the company also bought a 1,440-square-foot medical office building on .09 acres at 7 Newbridge Road for $1 million.
Questus is planning to construct a mixed-use building that will bring 96 rental apartments over one level of parking and 3,500 square feet of retail space just two blocks from the Hicksville LIRR station. Amenities at the new complex, dubbed Fieldstone at North Broadway, will feature a clubroom, a fitness center, a business center and a raised outdoor courtyard. Ten percent of the apartments will be designated as workforce housing and offered at reduced rents.
The Nassau County Industrial Development Agency has given preliminary approval for economic incentives to the project, one of the first to be developed under Hicksville’s new downtown zoning created by the Town of Oyster Bay, which was approved in Feb. 2021. The new zoning, aimed at revitalizing the area, divided the existing Hicksville Downtown Central Business District into three new zoning districts surrounding the Hicksville LIRR station that will allow for a mix of multifamily housing, offices and a variety of retail uses.
The new zoning, which came three-and-a-half years after the town received a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant from the state in August 2017, accommodates buildings ranging from two to four stories, a reduction of height from the current zoning which allowed buildings up to six stories or 60-feet high. The zoning districts cover an area bordered by West John Street on the north, Old Country Road on the south, Railroad Lane on the east and about three blocks west of Newbridge Road on the west.
Questus is planning to begin construction on the Hicksville project next year and expects it to take about 20 months to complete.
Guy Canzoneri, formerly of Five Point Real Estate and now with Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International Commercial Services, represented the buyer, as well as the sellers of the North Broadway properties, Ratnam Associates, and the Newbridge Road property, 7 Newbridge Road LLC, in the sales transactions.
Greenview Properties is proposing to transform a mostly blighted site in Bay Shore into a new $50 million mixed-use development.
The plan, presented at a Town of Islip public hearing on Wednesday, would bring 156 apartments over about 14,000 square feet of medical office and retail space to a 5-acre site on the north side of Union Boulevard between 2nd Avenue and 3rd Avenue.
The development would have 132 rental apartments to be leased to people aged 55 and over, with 24 of the apartments to be non-age restricted.
A Greenview Properties affiliate, D&G Realty Ventures LLC, is seeking a zoning change for the 10-parcel development site from business and industrial districts to Downtown Development District to accommodate the plan.
“We’ll be utilizing the Downtown Development District zoning to allow for the removal of blighted properties and the redevelopment of a quality residential mixed-use building,” said Larry Gargano, principal of Greenview Properties. “We think the over-55 component is appropriate because that segment of the market is underserved in Bay Shore.”
Gargano added that the project would have “zero impact” on the school district, while providing continued support for downtown businesses and enhancing the community.
Greenview has been actively developing multifamily projects in downtown Bay Shore in the last couple of years. The company partnered with the Pace family on the development of a $30 million, 90-unit apartment building at 11 Maple Ave. that opened in the spring.
Last year, Greenview opened North District Lofts, a 120,000-square-foot, 90-unit apartment complex on Park Avenue. The five-story building, which has retail space on the ground level, is located a short walk to the Bay Shore Long Island Rail Road station and the downtown business district. The development earned Top Mixed-Use Project honors in LIBN’s 2022 Real Estate, Architecture & Engineering Awards.
Once approvals are secured, Gargano said construction on the new Bay Shore project likely wouldn’t start until 2024.
