By:Andrew Coen
The 10,000-square-foot building on the site of a former gas station, next to CVS Pharmacy, at 923 Broadway, is expected to open in late August. The Signature savings bank will occupy 6,000 square feet, while Long Island Heart Associates, which specializes in cardiology care, will occupy the remaining 4,000 square feet. A parking lot to accommodate 50 cars will be constructed underneath the building, which will be supported by concrete stilts.
"[Constructing the building on stilts] was expensive, but we needed the parking, since there is very little of it in Woodmere," said Dominick Valenti, owner of the property.
"We're happy that a commercial building is going in," said Woodmere Merchants Association President Seymour Glass. "I think it will be a big help to the community."
Valenti, a Hewlett Harbor resident, purchased the property three years ago. "I think it's going to be great for the Five Towns," he said. "We want to get fresh blood down here, and I think we did it."
Long Island Heart Associates' Woodmere office will be its first on the South Shore, to go along with locations in Mineola, Manhasset, Plainview and Kew Gardens, Queens. According to Long Island Heart Associates spokeswoman Laura Schlatter, the Woodmere office will feature the latest in state-of-the-art equipment, including nuclear and echocardiography suites. "Our Woodmere location will provide complete cardiology care for the entire Five Towns community," said Schlatter. "Our physicians are board certified in cardiology, and are pleased to be affiliated with the finest heart hospitals in Nassau and Queens counties."
"It will be great for people in the Five Towns to not have to head to the North Shore for certain medical care," said Valenti.
Signature Bank will occupy the first-floor office suite with a number of its private client-services teams. The Woodmere office will be the bank's 13th in the metropolitan area and the fourth on Long Island. The senior vice president for the new Signature Bank will be Craig Spatz, who served as vice president of the Fleet Bank - soon to become the Bank of America - on Central Avenue in Lawrence. Since June 29, Spatz has been working out of Signature's Rockville Centre office until the Woodmere location opens.
"The Long Island market is key to our expansion, as we have been able to recruit a number of top banking groups, such as the Craig Spatz private client/middle-market group from Fleet/Bank of America to target the needs of privately owned businesses, their owners and executives," said Signature's vice chairman, John Tamberlane.
The new commercial building is one of many construction projects in the works in Woodmere. Another medical building is slated to open next to Trinity-St. John's Episcopal Church on Broadway, at the site of the former Friendly's restaurant. Dr. Abraham Abbitan, who has an office in Hewlett, will run that medical building. In addition, three parking lots in the area are in the process of being refurbished with new lights and more spaces, and Woodmere Docks is also in the process of being reconstructed by the Town of Hempstead.
