Garvies Point brings in new North Shore neighbors

Joe Graziose, RXR Realty’s executive vice president of residential development and construction, joined by colleagues, family and Glen Cove city officials, used a pair of large scissors to cut a ribbon in front of one of Garvies Points’ complexes’ Harbor Landing, located on Herb Hill Road on Friday, Sept. 25. 

“For those of you from Glen Cove, mayor and others in the audience, you remember [former condominium site] Captains Cove, right?” Graziose, of Glen Cove, asked the crowd at the ribbon cutting. “That was 30 years ago. I was 28 years old.”

At the end of last year, new Glen Cove residents began moving into the complexes, including Village Square, The Beacon at Garvies Point and Harbor Landing, a part of a $1.3 billion transformation of over 50 acres of Glen Cove’s waterfronts. 

When the project is finished, it will bring 1,000 residences, split evenly between rentals and dwellings for sale. Also, about 75,000 square feet of restaurant, retail and office space, will be available, along with 28 acres of publicly accessible waterfront esplanades and parks. Amenities such as gyms and pools are also included.

The Beacon at Garvies Point is more than halfway sold, the rentals at Harbor Landing is 88 percent leased and Village Square, which opened in September, is already seeing new residents move in. And while construction was halted for 106 days during the pandemic, RXR continued to do virtual tours for those interested in the residential units. As cases decline, RXR is now providing in-person tours.

“We were able to take what a lot of people thought [the property] could be and actually bring it to reality and that’s what today is about for me and RXR,” Graziose said. 

The development will also have parks, an amphitheater with programmed events, and is in close proximity to Garvies Point Museum and Preserve. There will be kayak and paddleboard launches, retail, water front views and access to Mercadante Beach, as well as marinas with boat slips and an ecology pier

“Garvies Point was a vision becoming a reality,” Joanne Minieri, the chief operating officer for RXR said. “Well today Garvies Point is the reality. It’s a master plan with luxury rentals, workforce rentals, luxury condos, acres and acres of open space. But what really Garvies Point is . . . is a reflection of the success that could be achieved when municipalities, communities and the private sector come together for the greater good.” 

The ribbon cutting event for Harbor Landing came after a virtual Glen Cove Industrial Development Agency meeting where the real estate firm walked away with a 10-year extension on their sales tax exemption, originally granted in 2016. The firm will also be meeting with the Glen Cove Planning Board for a review of an amendment to the planned unit development, or PUD.

The PUD is for Block A, a condominium complex that hasn’t been built yet, and Block D, E and F market rate rental complexes, that includes a restaurant, a spa and wellness center, which also have not been built yet. The three blocks also include placing a municipal parking area for public amenities and the Glen Cove Ferry Terminal and Boat Basin located on the western edge of the Garvies Point property. RXR is asking to reduce the height of the condos, move the condos back from Hempstead Harbor and rearrange the market rate units, which would increase the number of market rate units by 71.

“The partnership between RXR and Glen Cove has resulted in the transformation of a once blighted area,” said Glen Cove Mayor Tim Tenke. “It is being revitalized so that the public can utilize the parkland spaces designed by RXR. It’s going to be a destination both for recreation and relaxation.”