Hempstead Turnpike eyesore to be demolished

Diagonally across the street from the attractive West 130 development, a residential property that became a reality thanks to the relentless efforts of the area’s civic leaders and residents, sits its antithesis — a dilapidated building that has been the object of years of local disdain: 101 Hempstead Turnpike.

The building, which was leased and managed by Breslin Realty for decades, is currently boarded up, and its roof is caving in, its windows are smashed, its paint is peeling, its surfaces are rusting, and weeds are growing out of the asphalt.

Civic leaders and residents have complained incessantly to Breslin Realty, to the Town of Hempstead and to one another about it. But they won’t have to complain much longer.

Breslin Realty CEO Wilbur Breslin said that his company had recently purchased the title to the property, after its 30-year lease with the owner expired, and that he would demolish the building within six months.

“We couldn’t come to terms with the owner of the property,” Breslin said, “and we couldn’t take the building down. They wouldn’t let us.” What made the owner finally sell? “It’s called one word,” he said. “Money.”

Asked about the future of the property after the demolition, Breslin said that no plan had been finalized.

The last time the building was legally occupied was 2005, when it served as the temporary headquarters of the Greg Peterson campaign when Peterson ran against Tom Suozzi for county executive. Prior to that, the tenants were a series of gas stations, none of which stayed very long.

Over the past eight years, the building has been the target of vandalism, and vagrants have taken up residence from time to time. The building has since been boarded up, and a frail, twisted fence stretches three-quarters of the way around the property’s perimeter.

“It’s been 12 years that it’s been in that condition,” said Rosalie Norton, president of the West Hempstead Community Support and Civic Association. “The community had been complaining to everyone about it. We complained to [the Town of Hempstead] about not maintaining it, but it never really went anywhere.”