The Landmark on Main Street held a grand re-opening ceremony last week after the completion of renovations to the community center and affordable senior housing development.
The center, which opened in 1995, has 59 senior housing apartments, eight of which are designed to accommodate special needs, a children’s day care group, a gym, a rehabilitation facility and a youth activity theater.
The renovations began five years ago and included 400 new windows, a new roof, new brick on the outside of the building, renovated bathrooms and new stoves in the senior residential center.
“We got a very successful construction project finished on time,” said Bob Schanzer, board president of Landmark Limited Partners, who was been involved with the project since the beginning. “I think the seniors love it and all of them are happy that we did it. They got new bathrooms, stoves and windows.”
Schanzer said many seniors received rent reductions, too.
The building was originally the Main Street School, but in 1985 the Port Washington school board closed the school because of declining enrollment and the building was almost sold, according to a history of the Landmark.
Schanzer was on the school board that voted to close the Main Street School.
Two citizens groups “merged their individual visions for the future of the building and the surrounding park,” and after multiple legal issues, a plan for affordable senior housing was made, the history said.
Schanzer said one group wanted to build a community center and the other wanted to build senior housing.
The property was sold to the Town of North Hempstead in 1991, then the town returned the building and park to the community, and it was developed in 1995 as a community facility.
The rehabilitation of the building was a $14.6 million project, funded by federal lower income tax credit, federal historic rehabilitation tax credit, private investors, a loan from the state housing trust fund, a grant from Nassau County, a loan from the Town of North Hempstead, a private bank loan and $250,000 from resident contributions.
“I call this a very successful project, and all of us are very pleased with the terrific outcome,” Schanzer said.
The project also included the refinancing of the building, “so the finances were stable and sound for the foreseeable future,” Schanzer said.
The project was an “in-residence rehabilitation,” Schanzer said, with work being completed with the senior residents living in the building.
“We kept a number of apartments vacant so we moved residents in and out,” Schanzer said. “It was so we were able to allow the residents to stay in the building and continue living while we completed all of the work. But all the rooms are filled now.”
The Landmark, which includes the Jeanne Rimsky Theater, had its 20th anniversary celebration last November, which celebrated the entire organization.
“My administration has worked tirelessly to increase new housing opportunities for senior citizens and young families,” Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano said in a statement. “Together, we advanced this project to revitalize the Landmark on Main Street and breathe new life into the downtown community.”
