Developers terminate contracts for proposed Lynbrook apartments

Just 10 days after making a presentation to the Lynbrook village board about building luxury rental apartments on Rocklyn Avenue, Mill Creek Residential terminated contracts with the businesses that occupy the land it hoped to develop.

Russell Tepper, a senior managing director at MCR, which acquires and operates high-end rental communities across the country, confirmed the Aug. 24 dissolution of the project in a statement to the Herald.

“Mill Creek takes pride in developing best-in-class residential communities in neighborhoods throughout the Northeast and Long Island alike,” Tepper said. “While our vision for this project, in particular, will not come to fruition, Mill Creek remains committed to working with Long Island’s municipalities to help create a win/win for the long-term betterment of our local economies.”

Tepper and Nick Halstead, a development associate at MCR, presented their ideas to Mayor William Hendrick and the village board at an Aug. 14 meeting. Their goal was to build a transit-oriented residential community — a walkable neighborhood within a half-mile of public transportation.

The complex would have had 250 apartments, including studio, one- and two-bedroom residences, and would have been built near Merrick Road, on a three-acre site where Hot Skates, Fun Station USA and Hi Tech Security now operate. The contracts to take over those properties were contingent on village board approval. MCR started working on acquiring the properties four months ago.

The decision came amid a lukewarm response from village officials, and Hendrick confirmed that they want condominiums or co-ops in the village, not rental apartments. “This board does not envision right now any apartments being built in the village,” Hendrick told the Herald in a phone interview. “It’s not in our plan. … We like people to own a piece of the rock.”

Hendrick added that he would prefer that residents own land, because he believes that they would take better care of the property, and would be more active in the village.

Jeff Greenfield, president of the Nassau County Planning Commission — whose business, NGL Insurance Group, operates within 500 feet of the proposed complex — expressed his unhappiness about the decision.

“I’m disappointed that the village missed an opportunity to upgrade a commercial industrial corner of the village,” said Greenfield, a member of the Chamber of Commerce. The chamber met with Tepper and Halstead a week before their presentation. Greenfield noted that there is a documented shortage of rental apartments in the county.

Village officials look toward the future

The proposed apartment complex was the second major project to be scrapped this summer. On July 19, hotel developer Lee Browning, president of Riverhead Hotel Management Corp., withdrew a proposal to build a Courtyard by Marriott over a municipal parking lot downtown.

Browning first proposed building the hotel in 2004, but a series of setbacks delayed the project. After Browning requested an extension on the deadline to file paperwork, the board could not reach a consensus, and Browning killed the project two days later.

The hotel and the apartments were not ideal for the village because of their scope, Hendrick said. Though the board has not sent out requests for proposals for the former hotel site or Rocklyn Avenue, Hendrick said that it is open to ideas. He suggested the vacant Mangrove Feather factory, at Broadway and Saperstein Plaza, across from where the Marriott was proposed, as a good place to build condominiums. It has been on the market for several months.

Hendrick added that he was also waiting on a decision on whether the operators of the Capri Lynbrook Motor Inn should have their room-rental license revoked. Hendrick formed a committee comprising village trustees to look into the hotel’s operations after a series of crimes occurred on and around the property. The panel heard testimony from police officers, expert witnesses and representatives of the hotel over the course of five hearings in March and April. Hendrick noted, however, that it could take months before a decision is reached.

“I want a better use for those properties,” Hendrick said, referring to the Capri and the feather factory. “One of them is in bad use, the other is underutilized.”

Meanwhile, the new Regal movie theater on Merrick Road, near Atlantic Avenue, is expected to open for the holiday season. Hendrick said he hoped it would be a boon to businesses downtown, and that it could lead to more development in Lynbrook.

“We’re still looking,” he said, “and people are coming. … If someone can make money on it, we’ll build it, and if it’s nice for us, we’ll say OK.”