The developer of a proposed 191-unit apartment complex on 240 East Shore Road has filed for financial assistance from the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency.
A public hearing on the IDA application by AvalonBay Communities will be heard on Jan. 29 at 11 a.m. at the Village of Great Neck Village Hall, located at 61 Baker Hill Road, according to a legal notice on the IDA’s website.
If the application is approved, the Virginia-based company “would receive financial assistance from the Agency in the form of potential exemptions or partial exemptions from real property taxes, mortgage recording taxes and sales and use taxes,” according to the IDA website.
The development company has been seeking village approval to build the apartment complex on a contaminated waterfront site, which currently holds six oil storage tanks formerly operated by Commander Enterprises that now lie in a state of disuse.
“We believe our proposed multi-family project supports the Village of Great Neck’s vision for the future of the community and provides a solution for a site that formally housed an oil company with over 2.5 million gallons of oil storage and has since become an eyesore,” an AvalonBay spokeswoman said in an e-mail. “The IDA benefits help make the project economically viable. Without them, the development costs would price the project out of the marketplace. Even with the IDA incentives, the Avalon Bay project, from the first year on, will generate more revenue for each taxing jurisdiction than has been collected from the site for years.”
AvalonBay Senior Vice President Matt Whelan announced at a July hearing that his company would be seeking IDA benefits to lessen the tax burden on village residents.
“As part of what we’re proposing, we’re planning on following the very common route of going through IDA benefits,” Whelan said.
At the same hearing, Whelan said his company would work with the state Department of Environmental Conservation to safely dismantle the former petroleum storage site at no cost to taxpayers.
Union officials objected to the construction, saying AvalonBay has a track record of unsafe working conditions, citing more than 180 serious working violations at construction sites over the past decade.
“AvalonBay is not the kind of developer I would want coming in to my town,” said Ben Bennett, a representative of SEIU Local 32BJ, which represents workers at AvalonBay sites.
The waterfront luxury apartment complex would include landscaped courtyards, a heated pool and controlled access garages, according to the developers.
At the Jan. 7 Village of Great Neck Board of Trustees meeting, Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman announced that the village would be taking lead agency status in the environmental study of the proposed construction.
The village has consulted Saratoga Associates, a firm based out of Manhattan, to help them with the study, which would determine if the construction would have any adverse effect on the environment.
At the same meeting, the proposal was passed along to the Nassau County Planning Commission, and is scheduled to be reviewed at the body’s Jan. 30 meeting, according to Kreitzman.
The commission’s review of the application should be ready for the Village’s Feb. 4 board of trustees meeting, Kreitzman said.
The mayor has expressed approval for the proposed construction in the past.
“I think this is an opportunity to both create residential property on the waterfront and also reclaim a nice piece of property that is an eyesore now,” he said in December.
