MSSN submits appeal to town Board of Zoning Appeals

Mount Sinai South Nassau has submitted an appeal to the Town of Hempstead’s Board of Zoning Appeals this month to create a 60,000-square-foot multi-specialty health care center in Wantagh, according to hospital officials.

The Oceanside-based hospital plans to invest $35 million in a four-story building at 2020 Wantagh Ave., a former Verizon facility now owned by the hospital.

“We really looked into this area because there’s a gap for services,” Dana Sanneman, Mount Sinai South Nassau’s vice president of public affairs and development said. “If you talk to people in the community, they’ll tell you that they have to travel very far to go see specialists.”

The appeal comes after the project was rejected by the Hempstead Town Board earlier this year, Sanneman explained. A revised version of that proposal had been presented to the board roughly six months ago, she said. Now, the future of the site remains in the hands of the Zoning Board.

Mount Sinai South Nassau is currently waiting for all regulatory approvals necessary to begin construction on the project. Once approved, construction could take 18 to 24 months. The facility would provide health care services including cardiology, digestive health, oncology, women’s health, cancer care, dermatology, neurology, endocrinology, lab services, pain management, pulmonary care, non-invasive surgery and urology.

“The concept, really, is to provide a one-stop shop for patients,” said Joe Calderone, the hospital’s senior vice president of corporate communications and development. “We want to put as much as we can under one roof so that the patients visiting one facility can get more done — it’ll be more convenient for them.” Equally important, Calderone noted, is that a variety of medical professionals will be housed in one building and will be able to collaborate across fields.

The hours of operation for most services would be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, according to an Aug. 11, 2020, presentation by the hospital. Evening hours on select weekdays and Saturdays would be phased in as warranted by patients’ needs.

Mount Sinai South Nassau is being assisted at the Wantagh site by the Bronx-based Simone Development Companies, which will manage the construction. Simone oversaw construction of a similar Mount Sinai doctors’ facility in Greenlawn.

The proposal was met by some criticism from the community, including the Wantagh-Seaford Homeowners Association, which still opposes the project. Hospital officials first met with the community and WSHA in June 2017 at Wantagh Middle School. Association President Ella Stevens said residents “were up in arms” about parking and potential traffic. “The association told them we did not approve,” Stevens said. “With the overflow of parking, people on the side streets would end up with cars … in front of their house, blocking their driveway …”

The WSHA and Mount Sinai South Nassau most recently discussed the project in spring 2020, just before the onset of the pandemic.

The property is on the west side of Wantagh Avenue, south of Sunrise Highway, across from Woodward Avenue. Stevens said she believed the Wantagh Avenue entrance to and exit from the parking lot is very close to the exit from a nearby shopping center.

“Now you want to put in doctors’ offices and other services, which is fine, but how are you going to accommodate the influx of patients coming in and out?” Stevens asked. “It’s not the same use as the Verizon building, where traffic was mostly stationary.”

Sanneman said there are 249 parking spaces on the site. Last year, Cameron Engineering & Associates conducted a traffic study for the hospital, before any community meetings. It determined that the visitor parking requirement is 81 spaces, combined with 136 needed for staff, a total of 217.

At the request of community and elected officials, Calderone said, the hospital added room for 65 more parking spaces by purchasing nearby buildings south of the site, which meets the parking requirements for the property. Calderone said that hospital officials believe the public concerns about traffic and parking have been addressed.

But the WSHA still does not support the project. Further, it is concerned about property tax revenue, because the hospital is a nonprofit.

To address traffic concerns, Sanneman said, the exit onto residential Jones Avenue was removed, so traffic could now only exit onto Sunrise Highway.

Joseph Fennessy, chairman of the hospital’s board of directors and a Wantagh resident, said he supported construction of the facility. “[This] will greatly benefit Wantagh and the entire South Shore,” he said. “Our neighbors will be able to receive quality, comprehensive care close to home.”

The new building would be strictly an ambulatory site, Calderone said. It would not serve as an extension of the Oceanside facility, would not have overnight hospital beds and would not serve as a drug treatment or behavioral health facility.

Calderone emphasized the importance of the site. “This building is literally going to save people’s lives,” he said. “And I’m not overstating that. … People will go to this building and they will receive care and diagnoses that they might not otherwise get, and it’s going to lead to better outcomes.”

The facility was projected to open in 2022, but a new timeline has not yet been established. A hearing date on the appeal, which would be structured as a public presentation before the Zoning Board of Appeals, has not been set.

The secretary to the Board of Appeals did not respond to a request for comments before the Herald went to press.