The Village of Lake Success Environmental Commission held a public hearing May 23 before a handful of people on a proposed $63 million North Shore-Long Island Jewish expansion at Marcus Avenue and Lakeville Road.
Before the project can go forward, the Village of Lake Success and the Town of North Hempstead must approve changes related to on-site parking, including two proposed parking garages, according to an environmental document filed with the Village of Lake Success known as a Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
“They had questions about what would be happening, what the application was all about,” said William DiConza, attorney for property owner 1111 Marcus Avenue LLC. “Applications in this property have been going on for the last 10 years. We’ve never had anybody speak out.”
DiConza said people were relieved the project only involved a restructuring of the parking lot and 1.3 million square foot building that was the former site of defense giant Lockheed Martin.
The Village of Lake Success will be accepting comments from the public until June 23, which will be addressed in a final version of the documents.
Also requiring approval is more office space sought by the property owner.
Under the developer’s plan, a nearly 115,000 square foot warehouse would be converted to non-warehouse uses and 122,000 square feet of additional office space would be rented.
Road improvements to Marcus Avenue and Lakeville Road must be approved by Nassau County and the state Department of Transportation.
North Shore-LIJ leases 400,000 square feet of buildable space within the building. Known as the Center for Advanced Medicine, services include outpatient mammography, radiology, and oncology.
If approved, the hospital system would more than double the Monter Cancer Center with a $28.2 million expansion. It would also relocate outpatient radiology from the Long Island Jewish Medical Center across the street to the Center for Advanced Medicine in a $35.2 million project.
Though hospitals are tax exempt, in lieu of property taxes North Shore University Hospital agreed in 2008 to pay the Village of Lake Success 85 percent of the village real property taxes it would be required to pay if it were not tax exempt.
The agreement would become affective if North Shore-LIJ purchases the property. Property taxes are currently paid by the property owner.
One scenario predicts a 63 percent traffic increase on Saturday, but DiConza said that would mean a full North Shore-LIJ building, which is not currently planned, and traffic would still be at an acceptable level.
Bound by Marcus Avenue to the north, Union Turnpike to the south, and Lakevillle Road to the west, the area supports a dense concentration of commercial and office buildings.
The 94-acre site was constructed by the U.S. Government in 1941 and used as a defense plant for Sperry Gyroscope.
It served as the original home of the United Nations and in 1951 was sold to a series of military contractors.
After Lockheed sold the property in 2000, it was redeveloped as a mixed-use complex that includes Cablevision’s public access studio, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
