By Andrew Hackmack
Dominick Minerva represented 109 Realty LLC, a nursing home management company, at Monday night's village workshop meeting. Minerva said the company has outgrown its office in Lynbrook and is looking to move. It hopes to purchase the West Hawthorne building, which includes two floors of office space above one level of parking.
Minerva said that about two-thirds of the building's second floor is currently vacant, and the company would use that space. As other leases in the building expire, 109 Realty would have room to expand, he explained.
Although the building has its own parking lot, Minerva said it is not large enough for the firm, which is seeking to lease more parking spaces in Municipal Lot 29. If it cannot secure parking from the village, he said, the company will be forced to look elsewhere.
"They will not locate here unless they can get it," Minerva said of the additional parking.
Village officials would welcome the company to Valley Stream - and to the West Hawthorne building, which is close to the downtown business district on Rockaway Avenue. Losing 20 parking spots would be a small price to pay to bring 80 jobs to the community, Village Clerk Vincent Ang said.
In actuality, Ang explained, the village would lose virtually nothing - not with an expanded parking lot about to reopen in the same area. Ang said that the refurbished lot, when it is back in operation in a few months, will have 250 to 300 spots, up from about 100. "Fortunately, we are in a position where we are adding so many parking spots in that area," he said.
Ang added that although the village must do its part to meet the parking needs of commuters, it must also be cognizant of shoppers and businesses. That is why the village board takes proposals like this very seriously, he said.
Those 80 new employees would eat lunch and use other services along Rockaway Avenue. Ang said that thriving business districts have both multi-family housing units and office buildings, with a lot of residents living within walking distance of their jobs.
"Those are the successful downtown areas," he said.
Minerva said that the company has offered $300 per parking space per year, with annual cost-of-living increase over the course of a 10-year lease. Ang said that village officials would prefer to set the base price at $375, the annual cost of a spot for a non-village resident. The price is still being negotiated, he said.
Signs would be posted on all the spots, instead of separating them from the rest of the lot. Minerva said his client is seeking 20 spots directly behind the building.
"I have noticed in that parking lot that signage always seems to work," Ang said. "We've never had a problem."
Minerva hopes to have an answer from the board at the regular business meeting Aug. 20.
Ang said the village board would like the deal to work out. He explained that there have been some tax-exempt agencies eyeing the building, which would have an impact on the village's tax base. If a non-profit group were to buy the building, the $40,000 in annual tax revenue it generates would be shifted to other village taxpayers.
"We can't afford to keep losing big buildings off the tax rolls," Ang said. "That's been a big problem we've had."
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