Local developer Firooz Fred Dilmanian prefers to demolish houses in the rain – it cuts down on dust – but on a sweltering hot day in late June the weather is not cooperating.
In less than an hour, the quaint 1,500-square-foot house off Hicks Lane will be reduced to rubble by a three-man crew led by Rocco DiPaola.
Taking its place will be custom built 3,700-square-foot home for a young family who asked their name and address be withheld. It will take Dilmanian eight or nine months to build their dream house, which they saved for by living with family.
The Village of Great Neck neighborhood is an assortment of aging single-family homes and the larger structures that are slowly replacing them. Their chosen property is nestled snugly between two newer houses.
DiPaola himself took down 30 or 40 houses in Great Neck last year.
“It’s quiet but it’s picking up, mainly around here,” he said. “The big guys got hit pretty badly. But me and a couple of guys it’s not so bad.”
The Bayville resident keeps busy doing excavation, cesspools, and driveways. He has been in the contracting business for 16 years. His father was a landscaper, a trade that DiPaola did not enjoy.
“I bought a small piece of equipment and little by little now I have seven pieces of equipment,” he said.
Dilmanian has built his business mostly by word of mouth.
With the economy still recovering he no longer constructs houses on speculation, but he builds “plenty” of custom made houses in the peninsula. Unsold houses were rented out.
“The market for rent is good in Great Neck,” he said.
A seven year Village of Kings Point resident, Dilmanian came to the United States from Iran in 1987. He has been an engineer since 1971.
Construction was different in Iran, from materials to the permit process. With little wood available in his city of Tehran, he used mostly concrete and steel.
Built were apartment buildings, not single family houses.
“They inspect the construction also, but they are not as strict as they are here,” he said.
