Controversy behind it, Rockville Centre's AvalonBay is filling fast

The second AvalonBay apartment building at the Banks Avenue complex is expected to be fully completed by mid- July, and is already partially rented.

Chris Capece, development director of AvalonBay Communities, said that while it is not 100 percent leased, residents have already begun moving in.

Sixty apartments are currently occupied, Capece said, out of an expected 139 that will be finished this summer.

The first building, which opened last July, has 210 apartments and is fully leased. “It’s for many of the reasons why people move to Rockville Centre in the first place,” Capece said. “There’s a great downtown, and people can jump on the train with a short walk and get to the city in 36 minutes. I think those are two of the contributing factors, and there’s kind of a pent-up need for quality rental housing for young professionals.”

As for the complex’s impact on the village, Larry Siegel, president of the Rockville Centre Chamber of Commerce, said, “Being that it’s so fairly new, and it’s not yet fully functioning, I haven’t heard any feedback on it.”

According to the school district’s assistant superintendent of business, Robert Bartels, fewer than 10 students come from the AvalonBay community.

Village officials had long fought the project at 80-100 Banks Ave., the former Darby Drugs brownfield site. A plan by Chase Partners LLC to develop a smaller, 349-unit luxury condominium complex called Signature Place led to years of litigation, which ended in 2009, when the village agreed to a $1.15 million settlement with Chase Partners.

When AvalonBay Communities announced plans to build an apartment complex, the village protested its zoning application to the Town of Hempstead because its approval would have allowed the company to make payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, that were smaller than the property taxes the developer would owe 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.