Village of Great Neck Estates trustees voted Monday to again continue a public hearing on a proposal to demolish the First Playhouse Theater and replace it with an apartment complex.
Village of Great Neck Estates Mayor David Fox said the owners of the First Playhouse Theater, First Playhouse of Great Neck Corp., requested to continue the hearing until the village trustees’ July 13 meeting. He said the developer is still waiting on plan approval from Nassau County.
Hearings on the First Playhouse have been postponed for months.
The chief executive officer of the First Playhouse of Great Neck Corp., Ely Sakhai, of Old Westbury, plans to redevelop the site with an apartment complex. Sakhai also owns “The Art Collection” gallery at 39 Cutter Mill Road.
In 2004, an Old Westbury resident named Ely Sakhai pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in a 15-year art forgery operation that resulted in a 41-month prison sentence and $12.5 million fine.
The Ely Sakhai who owns the First Playhouse Theater said in an interview with Blank Slate Media that he is not the same Ely Sakhai who pleaded guilty to the art forgery, despite having an Old Westbury address.
Fox has said he was unaware of the art forgery incident and was not aware of Sakhai’s background when the First Playhouse Theater proposal was introduced to the village, under the applicant name First Playhouse of Great Neck Corp.
He has said the board has not even communicated with Sakhai directly on the proposal, as the applicant’s representative in public hearings has been Jan Soleimani, identified as First Playhouse of Great Neck Corp.’s vice president.
Fox had declined to comment on whether an applicant’s criminal history would influence a board’s decision on whether to approve a proposal.
“No one does background checks [on the application], ever – they just don’t do it,” Fox said at the time. “It’s not the policy of the village.”
In May, Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender sent a letter to the Village of Great Neck Estates highlighting the Plaza board’s concerns about the project, as the First Playhouse sits near the border of the two villages on Middle Neck Road.
While the First Playhouse is located in the Village of Great Neck Estates, the sidewalk in front of the property and the parking meters belong to Great Neck Plaza.
Celender said the Plaza did not want construction workers parking in on-street parking spots meant for shoppers. The Plaza, she said, has agreed to sell 15 parking spots throughout the village for construction workers.
Celender said during construction the sidewalk will be used as a staging area, requiring a temporary pedestrian walk area to be placed where some on-street parking spaces are now.
She said the developers have agreed to reimburse the Plaza for the loss of about four to five spots.
Developers have also agreed, Celender said, to replace some of the trees that will have to be removed during construction.
She said she is hopeful redevelopment of the site will move forward.
“They’ve been working on that now over 10 years, seven years with the most recent application,” Celender said at a May Village of Great Neck Plaza trustees meeting. “We encourage them to move on with it and get it down.”
Celender said in May the property is an eyesore.
“Every day it sits vacant it’s a drain on our downtown,” Celender said. “It’s aesthetically very unappealing.”
