By Dana Williams
A number of Baldwin residents said that they are not being properly updated by town officials about the status of the Town of Hempstead's revitalization project for Grand Avenue and Merrick Road, an initiative that was announced last year after the town deemed the area blighted.
At a community meeting hosted by Town Councilman Anthony Santino on May 14, many residents called on town officials to provide more specific information about the project, which was announced last year. The town expects to choose a final developer for the project this fall.
The Town of Hempstead recently narrowed the developer selection down to three finalists: Breslin Realty Development Corp., Blumenfeld Development Group and a joint venture between Basser-Kaufman and Engel Burman. Santino told residents that once a developer is chosen, they would be notified about the builder's plans for the area.
"When we have the final submissions from the three developers, then we will know the retailers they are planning to bring to the site," Santino explained to more than 60 people at the meeting. "It's a bid process and we [town officials] can't release that information because than the other developers will say their competitor had an unfair advantage."
Santino, along with 12 other town officials in tow, sat on a panel in the Baldwin Middle School auditorium to discuss the project and address any other concerns that residents had.
Two residents suggested that a new supermarket should be included in the town's urban renewal plan, since the former location of the Waldbaums on Sunrise Highway is slated to open as a Best Buy this summer. Santino said, however, "that a supermarket does not fall within the purview of what town officials and developers are hoping to build for the project."
"We are looking to make this site a destination shopping place where people will come from Baldwin and surrounding areas to shop there and a supermarket is not going to do that," he added. "We are trying to boost the entire Baldwin business district mainly by bringing in viable national stores."
The project is expected to be completed in roughly two years once construction begins, which town officials expect to be underway in the Spring of 2008. Once one of the three developers has been chosen, Santino said that town officials would have another community meeting to provide residents with the specific details about the revitalization project. Ever since the project was announced, Santino has held a number of forums where he spoke about the project with residents and community organizations such as the Baldwin Chamber of Commerce.
Santino also reassured residents that the project is going to be different from what the Baldwin community has seen in the past, ruling out pharmacies, nail salons and fast-food restaurants as prospective businesses for the project. Although town officials could not provide residents with a specific store that will be a part of project, Charles Theofan, the town's commissioner of planning and economic development, said that one national retailer has contacted officials more than once expressing its interest in opening up a location on the project site.
With Breslin's design calling for a pedestrian walkway, other residents wanted answers about how the new shopping center will affect traffic on Merrick Road and Grand Avenue, two already busy thoroughfares. Town officials will be conducting traffic studies as part of the planning process for the project, Santino said.
One resident also said that parking would be a problem with the new shopping center, since there is already an insufficient amount of parking spaces near the Baldwin Public Library and other establishments on Grand Avenue. Theofan explained, however, that parking will not be a problem because national retailers will not agree to be a part of the project unless the developer's proposal meets the number of parking spaces that their stores are required to have.
The town would acquire the property through eminent domain, and once it adopts an urban renewal plan sometime in July, it would then turn the parcel over to a developer, who town officials said would assume the project's costs.
Theofan gave a brief overview of the eminent domain process for residents, calling it "a process that works in their favor." By using eminent domain, the town will offer property owners the highest amount of money that their property is worth, he said. One of the resurfacing questions residents had about the redevelopment plan was exactly when tenants and business owners in the urban renewal project area will have to move, so that construction can begin.
"It is tentative at the moment, but residents will know in the next couple of months," Santino responded. "We are not at that point yet to give a date, but when we do reach that point, the property owners will be notified and provided with relocation assistance."
