Company seeks to build condos in Malverne

Rezoning meeting is scheduled for Jan. 26 at Town Hall

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R&B Acquisitions & Development, a Franklin Square-based company, is hoping to construct a building with 12 condominiums on Hempstead Avenue in an unincorporated area of Malverne, and is seeking the Town of Hempstead’s approval to rezone the property.

The company will present its plans to the town at a public hearing at Town Hall on Jan. 26 at 10:30 a.m. R&B will discuss two properties at the meeting: 494 and 1104 Hempstead Ave., both of which are in a Residence A district. The company will request that they be rezoned as Residence C-A, which allows condos. Both properties are outside the village’s borders, and pay school taxes in West Hempstead.

The parcel at 1104 Hempstead Ave. is behind 494, and is not easily visible from the street, but behind the house, which is on the north side of Atlas Court, is a sizable parcel of land — nearly an acre, much larger than most in the area. According to county records, the property has had a number of mortgages over a seven-year period, held by the same group of people and companies. The current owner is a company named 1104 Hempstead Ave LLC, headquartered in Franklin Square. R&B is also listed at the same Franklin Square street address. Attempts to reach the companies were unsuccessful.

The property at 494 Hempstead Ave., also owned by 1104 Hempstead Ave. LLC, measures almost a third of an acre, and has also changed hands — among a separate group of the same people and companies — a number of times since 1998.

Mayor Patricia McDonald told the Herald that she opposes the rezoning, citing already heavy traffic in that area. The properties sit only 500 feet from entrances to eastbound ramp of the Southern State Parkway, and only 500 feet from the incorporated village’s boundary line.