Avalon RVC to open next week

Avalon Rockville Centre — the much-discussed apartment complex still under construction at the former Darby Drugs brownfield site — will welcome its first tenants on June 17, according to Chris Capece, development director of AvalonBay Communities.

The 210-unit Building One will open next week. Building Department Superintendent Dan Casella said that the village granted the real estate company temporary certificates of occupancy for the sales office in Building One and the apartments ready to be occupied.

“They’re very close, they’re progressing and they constantly give us updates,” said Casella, adding that a TCO is normally in effect for 30 to 90 days. “They are approaching a crest in their development.”

Construction of Building One is expected to continue into August and September. The tenants who move in next Friday will be unable to use the building’s heated poor, outdoor kitchen and grill area which are all still under construction. A fitness center is finished, however.

Building Two, just south of Building One, will house another 139 apartment units and feature an outside fire pit when it opens in the second half of 2012 — when, Capece said, he hopes to have 100 percent occupancy.

“We believe it could lease up at an unprecedented pace for Long Island,” Capece said of the $120 million project, which will occupy just over seven acres of property. “Avalon and the village will have a very special new community to be proud of.”

Village officials had long fought the project at 80-100 Banks Ave. A plan by Chase Partners LLC to develop a 349-unit luxury condominium complex called Signature Place led to years of litigation and ended in 2009 when Rockville Centre agreed to a $1.15 million settlement with Chase Partners.

After the Virginia-based AvalonBay Communities announced plans to build a complex of rental units, the village protested its application to the Town of Hempstead because its approval would have allowed the company to make payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTS, which would have been smaller than the property taxes the developer would have owed the town, village and school district. The village withdrew its opposition in 2010, when AvalonBay agreed to pay Rockville Centre the difference between the village’s share of a PILOT and the taxes it otherwise would have collected on the complex.

“I’m sure AvalonBay is going to be a very good corporate citizen when they open,” said Mayor Mary Bossart. “They understood our concerns and worked very hard to make sure the village was made whole.”

Nonetheless, the real estate company has recently faced additional obstacles. On March 30, a crowd of some 350 union workers gathered at the construction site, decrying the use of nonunion workers. They set up four large inflatable rats and picketed. The protest grew heated, leading some to throw rocks and bottles. As a result of the demonstration, AvalonBay filed a restraining order against 14 construction unions included in the Nassau/Suffolk Building Trades Council.

Capece told the Herald that AvalonBay has spent approximately $1.2 billion developing properties in the metropolitan area. Almost 90 percent of the construction work, he said, has been done with the help of unions.

With the hope of establishing a “legacy,” Capece said, he wants AvalonBay to continue expanding into new areas of Long Island. A number of AvalonBay complexes are now up and running in Long Beach, Glen Cove, Smithtown, Melville and Coram. On Monday, the Huntington town board approved a development that will have 379 apartment units. Construction is expected to start within the year.

In addition to its apartment complexes in the Northeast, AvalonBay also has communities in the Middle Atlantic states, the Pacific Northwest and California. But what makes Long Island unique, Capece said, is that it contains a lot of real estate and it’s only a train ride away from New York City.

“We believe in building an A community in an A submarket,” he added. “And we want to build a legacy ... Avalon Rockville Centre will provide a high-quality alternative befitting the Village of Rockville Centre.”

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