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Mostly Cloudy Valley Stream seeks Rockaway Avenue revival
Business owners hope for more foot traffic
Valley Stream officials say they know how to improve the village’s downtown business district. The tough part is execution.
“Rockaway Avenue is a tough area,” said Vinny Ang, the research assistant to the Board of Trustees. “It’s very deceptive. Physically it’s attractive. When you get on it, you realize it’s dead.”
Rockaway Avenue has struggled for decades, since it lost its standing as the village’s main commercial corridor when the Green Acres Mall opened in 1956. The downtown has lacked a true anchor business ever since the movie theater closed in the 1990s.
The true fix, Ang said, is to simply have more people living near the downtown area. He explained that Valley Stream needs to follow Rockville Centre’s lead and add more high-density housing to Rockaway Avenue and the surrounding area.
But land on which to build those sorts of projects is scarce. There are single-family homes as close as a block from Rockaway Avenue. Replacing existing buildings on the street, many of which date to the early 20th century, would require evicting businesses.
As part of his role with the village, Ang frequently pitches the community, and specifically Rockaway Avenue, to prospective developers. “They all like Valley Stream,” he said. “They’re all interested in Valley Stream. The problem is land acquisition.”
Two housing projects, totaling more than 150 units, are nearing completion. Hawthorne Court, which has been under construction for six years, is two blocks away, on Cottage Street. The original developer did not complete the project, and it has since been sold. Ang said that since the sale, work on the 90-unit project has resumed.
Sun Valley, at the intersection of Rockaway and Sunrise Highway, will have 72 apartments, ranging from one to three bedrooms, above ground-level retail space. It is expected to open early next year. Ang estimates that the two projects will add at least 400 residents to the downtown area. “That’s an immediate injection of business into Rockaway Avenue,” he said.
