A site plan to build a self-storage structure on long-vacant property in Roslyn Heights where industrial products had been manufactured has been unanimously approved by the North Hempstead Town Board.
The Syosset-based Blumenfeld Development Group (BDG) said at a Dec. 17 town meeting that the current one-story structure at 71 Jane St., originally built in 1949 and left vacant in 2013, would be replaced with a four-story, 98,000-square-foot building that would house storage units, and 22-foot-wide landscape buffers. BDG is best known for developing big box stores like B.J.’s in Farmingdale and outlet malls like Tanger’s The Arches in Deer Park.
The site, which sits at the end of a residential block, is bordered by a park, a condo complex and train tracks leading to the Long Island Rail Road station in Roslyn. It is considered a brownfield, a property that was abandoned and may contain hazardous substances after years of industrial product manufacturing.
Former tenants of the site include the Tiffen Co., which produced filters and lenses for movie and TV cameras, and Darmex Industrial, which made lubricants and cleaning products. Its most recent occupants were a company that restores furniture and a company that produced equipment for General Motors. BDG said at the meeting that it had been accepted into the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Brownfield Cleanup Program in August.
Jane Street resident Michael Monica asked if the contaminants would be airborne during construction, and Rafaella Petrasek, BDG’s director of community and government affairs, replied that the contaminants were in the soil and would not migrate near residential homes.
Public comment on the proposal’s work plan is expected to take place at one of the town’s meetings in early 2020.
