AvalonBay project breaks ground

Adam Lidgett

Commander Oil operator Joseph Shapiro had a dream 10 years that the former petroleum storage facility he owned at 240 East Shore Road in the Village of Great Neck would one day be redeveloped into something special.

“He just wanted to make something out of this property,” said Len Shapiro, Joseph Shapiro’s son. “We didn’t just want garden apartments. He wanted something to be proud of.”

Shapiro’s dream came true last Thursday when AvalonBay Communities broke ground for the construction of a 191-unit apartment building on the site .

Shapiro was not there to see it, having died in January 2014, but many others were including his son.

Len Shapiro was joined at the groundbreaking by Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman, village trustees Mitch Beckerman, Jeff Bass and Barton Sobel as were Great Neck Water Pollution Control District commissioners Deena Lesser and Steve Reiter, Nassau County Legislator Ellen Birnbaum (D-Great Neck) and her husband Village of Great Neck Judge Mark Birnbaum.

Also present at the groundbreaking were North Hempstead Town councilwomen Anna Kaplan and Lee Seeman, Town Clerk Wayne Wink, Town Receiver of Taxes Charles Berman and Village of Great Neck Building Department Superintendent Bob Barbach.

Village of Great Neck trustees gave AvalonBay Communities final site-plan approval in December to build the complex, which will consist of 81 one-bedroom units, 79 two-bedroom units and 31 three-bedroom units. Some 10 percent of the total apartments will be used for workforce housing.

In February 2014, the land the complex will sit on was rezoned for residential use.

Shapiro, who now runs Commander Oil with is sister Carol Engel, said his family is getting out of the oil business, selling off most of the parcels of land where they once owned oil facilities. He said he and his sister also both run Commander Enterprises, a real estate investment company.

Shapiro said that because the 240 East Shore Road property is one of the first things a visitor to Great Neck sees as they enter the peninsula his father wanted to do something special with the site.

Shapiro said Commander Oil, which owned the petroleum storage facility from 1981 to 2014, originally wanted to build something on the site themselves, but wanted a developer. That, he said, is where AvalonBay came into the picture.

“They were willing to come into the village and make it a centerpiece of the village,” Shapiro said.

“Ten years ago my father had a vision,” Len Shapiro said. “He wanted a development project we could all be proud of.”

The parcel the building will sit on is 3.85 acres once included six above-ground petroleum tanks, which were demolished in March.

Commander was required to remove contaminated soil from the site and treat any contaminated soil that could not be removed from the property. AvalonBay hopes to have tenants moving into the building by fall 2016.

Len Shapiro said his father helped make the “dream” of AvalonBay a reality.

“In the words of Joe Shapiro, ‘gentlemen, job well done,’” Shapiro said.

Kreitzman described Joseph Shapiro as a mensch, and thanked both the Shapiro family and the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency for their helping in bringing the project to fruition.

“I wish you a speedy construction, and another ceremony in two years,” Kreitzman said.

The IDA granted tax breaks to AvalonBay for the construction of the building.

Under an agreement with the IDA, AvalonBay will make $9,278,456 in payments in lieu of taxes to the village during the next 15 years.  

The payment in lieu of taxes — known as a PILOT — will start at $95,000 in the first year and increase to $958,110 in the 15th and final year, according to the agreement.

Property taxes on the development would cost about $1 million a year.

Chris Capece, senior development director for AvalonBay, said at the time that if the IDA had not approved the tax breaks, AvalonBay would have looked to develop housing in other areas of Nassau County.

Nicholas Terzulli, director of business development for the IDA, said after the project is completed, the tax benefit will be $8 million, and that the project will create 315 full-time construction jobs.

“This is a testament to the private and the public sector working together,” Terzulli said.

Capece said Thursday that without the help of the Shapiro family, the cleanup of the site and the “complex” construction could never be done.

Matt Whalen, senior vice president of development for AvalonBay, said the village trustees were tough but fair with the developers through the application process.

“From day one when we came in to talk to the mayor and trustees, we said we invest dollars in communities that appreciate our investment,” Whalon said.

He said once the project is finished, he “guarantees” it will be a remarkable waterfront community.

But not all residents are pleased with the project.

Sam Yellis, a Village School teacher running for Village of Great Neck trustee in the June 16 elections, said in a statement that the AvalonBay project is a “perverted priority” for residents.

“I’m glad the century old Commander Oil site is being converted to housing at last,” Yellis said in the statement. “But how many local residents will be able to afford the $4,000 and $5,000 rentals AvalonBay will charge? Nobody I know would be able to live there.”

Yellis said there is a cry for affordable housing in the area, and that he wondered why trustees did not testify on behalf of Academy Gardens residents before the village Planning Board.

“This is just the typical behavior of the Better Government Party and its service to developers of all kinds,” Yellis said in a statement. “It’s time for a change.”

Yellis is running for village trustee on the Bridge Party ticket.

He is running against trustees Beckerman and Bass, both on the Better Government Party ticket, and Anne Mendelson and Raymond Plakstis Jr., both on the Voice of the Village Party ticket. Kreitzman is running for village mayor on the Better Government Party ticket and Pedram Bral is running for mayor of the Voice of the Village Party ticket.

Kings Point Gate Associates, a management company based out of Manhattan, proposed two years ago to demolish the Academy Gardens apartment complex and replace them with market-rate units. Many of the tenants of Academy Gardens are low-income minority families who have said they could not afford to live in Great Neck if they were evicted from the apartments.

Queens College professor Andrew Alan Beveridge was hired by the village to determine if the proposed demolition of the rent-stabilized apartment complex, located at Middle Neck and Steamboat roads, and the construction of market-rate units in its place would be in violation of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which makes it illegal to deny residency to a person because of their background.

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