New Plans for Harbor Isle condos

After years of planning, community opposition and economic setbacks, a proposed $100 million luxury condo development in Harbor Isle is back on the table, with the developer calling for some of the condos to be used temporarily as rentals in a tight housing market.

The latest effort to build on the vacant lot — an 11-acre, petroleum-contaminated waterfront property in the southeast section of Harbor Isle in Island Park — comes after the developer of the project asked Town of Hempstead officials on May 25 to allow a percentage of the residential units to be offered as rentals, a request that has some residents crying foul.

At the meeting, representatives of Posillico Development LLC requested that the town board grant a provision to the condo project, which was approved two years ago. Specifically, Posillico is requesting that the town allow 10 percent of the proposed 167 units to be used as rentals. The provision, Posillico representatives explained, is a stipulation that banks are requiring in order to approve financing for the project.

The intention, representatives said, is to ultimately make all of the units owner-occupied, with the rentals a last resort being imposed by the banks if the market does not improve or if sales slow. Town Councilman Anthony Santino, however, is seeking to impose a five-year limit on rental leases, contingent on how the units sell, to ensure that all of the units would ultimately be owner-occupied.

"It's unclear why you need the rentals now," Santino said. "There is great concern —people in Harbor Isle are not looking for it to be rentals for an infinite amount of time."

"It's a safeguard," Posillico's attorney, Bill Cohn, told the board. "That's what they want, and we can't do the job without it. We hope we never have to rent one unit here. We want to sell the project — that's our goal."

The request for rentals comes after years of stalled efforts for a condo plan that began nearly a decade ago. Most recently, in March 2008, the town rezoned the property from commercial to residential. The land still requires an environmental cleanup, since for 40 years it was a fuel transfer terminal owned by Cibro Oil Treatment.