Local officials celebrated the opening of the AvalonBay Great Neck apartment complex on Thursday, describing it as a great development helping bring new people into the village.
Village of Great Neck trustees gave AvalonBay final site plan approval in December 2014 to build the complex, which features nearly 200 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments at 240 East Shore Road.
The five-story Avalon Great Neck complex, overlooking Manhasset Bay, also features landscaped courtyards, a heated pool, residential lounge and fitness center. AvalonBay representatives said 145 of the 191 units are occupied. One-bedroom apartments start at $2,925 a month.
“We typically don’t get a chance to have a celebration like this on Long Island very often,” Christopher Capace, the senior development director of AvalonBay, told residents and officials. “These projects are incredibly complex.”
The property, once owned by Commander Oil, was home to a petroleum storage facility with storage tanks nearly six stories high. Developers ultimately treated and removed contaminated soil on the property before transforming it into the luxury complex.
Great Neck Village Mayor Pedram Bral told attendees that he welcomes residents to the complex and that they “made the right choice” in choosing both the village and the apartment complex.
“I’m hoping we hear good news from each other and we further enrich the community,” Bral said.
Robert Barbach, the Village of Great Neck’s building supervisor for both administrations involved with the project, said most of the complications were early on. But now, he said, it may represent the start of a new era for the area.
“It probably is the most ambitious project to date,” Barbach said in an interview. “You are seeing the beginning of new opportunities in Great Neck as a result.”
The village rezoned the property over a decade ago to allow townhouses and homes, but that stalled due to a court challenge, former Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman said.
But seeing the Avalon Great Neck, which was first proposed during his administration, come to life has been very satisfying.
“We had a vision for this and then it fell away,” Kreitzman said in an interview. “So we were really happy when it came back.”
