Floral Park to gather ideas for Centennial Hall

Noah Manskar

The Village of Floral Park has hired a global real estate firm to help envision a future for Centennial Hall.

The village brought on CBRE, a realty company that operates in more than 60 countries and has a Melville office, last week to develop a request for proposals to renovate the historic but dilapidated building.

The firm and the village are collecting information about the property, its value, potential uses and what the community wants for it, CBRE Senior Vice President Martin Lomazow said, a process that should take about 90 days.

“We’d like to see the broadest range possible of ideas brought back to us, and we’ll winnow it down,” Floral Park Village Administrator Gerard Bambrick said.

Floral Park also plans to send engineers to the site to evaluate the building’s condition, Mayor Thomas Tweedy said, and the village is doing some repairs to maintain it.

The village chose CBRE from among five realty firms who responded to a request for proposals it put out in the fall seeking help with Centennial Hall’s development, village Trustee Lynn Pombonyo said.

The former Masonic Temple could be restored for a number of purposes, Pombonyo said, including commercial, medical or non-profit offices, retail, apartments or some combination of uses.

CBRE will eventually be engaging residents to determine the use that best fits the community’s needs, Lomazow said. 

Bambrick said there’s a possibility that the Village Board will determine none of the uses the firm proposes are the best fit for the village.

But it’s unlikely that the iconic building standing at one of the entrances to Floral Park would be demolished, Lomazow and village officials said, as was discussed at a public hearing in September.

“I don’t think anything’s off the table right now, but I don’t think we’re getting much in response in the way of tearing it down and putting something there,” Bambrick said.

The village bought Centennial Hall in 2005 for $1.5 million with a $2 million bond. 

Since then, it has continued to deteriorate and is only occasionally used. The remaining $500,000 was used to repair the roof.

Residents were divided in September over what the village should do with the building.

Selling to a private entity was one of several options Bambrick presented then for how the village could proceed.

Others included razing the building and replacing it with either a parking lot for $670,000 or one-story community center for $3 million, Bambrick said then. 

Renovating the first floor would cost $1.25 million, he said, and restoring all four floors would cost $4.7 million.

Several residents said the building should become a mixed-use space that would generate revenue for the village. The lower floors could house a theater group, they said, or a gathering place for teens or seniors, while the upper floors could become offices.

While it’s still uncertain how Centennial Hall will be used, Lomazow said it seems tearing it down would not be “financially prudent.”

“Generally speaking, adaptive reuse of real estate is often the most prudent outcome, the most economically prudent outcome,” he said.

Pombonyo said the village could either sell the building, enter into a long-term lease or a combination of the two.

CBRE will get a 6-percent commission on the sale price if Centennial Hall is sold, Bambrick said.

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