By Matthew McGevna
The WHCA teamed up with other organizations in West Hempstead to send a message to Supervisor Kate Murray that they believe the town is dragging its heels on the sale. ³Start the process that would enable the sale to take place,² said Rosalie Norton, president of the WHCA, at the June 5 town board meeting. ³It¹s wrong to delay the process that Trammell Crow Residential has been waiting for.²
³Some residents have been waiting 10, 12, 15 years for the town to do something about the Courtesy Hotel,² said Marshall Myers, the WHCA¹s executive vice president. ³All we¹re asking is let capitalism rule the day.²
At issue for impatient residents is the fact that Trammell Crow Residential has been in contract to purchase the property since March of 2006, and has filed an application to have the property zoned so it can build 220 apartment units at the site. In order for the developer to have its application approved, the town must conduct an environmental impact study to determine how the apartment complex would affect the surrounding community. In the meantime, the town is pursuing the possibility of taking ownership of the hotel through the eminent domain process, a measure that West Hempstead residents are vehemently opposed to because of the time the process would take and legal battles that would ensue.
In a letter sent to the town, Bruce Zwelsky, owner of the Courtesy, vowed to drag the town through the court system if it attempts to seize control of his property through eminent domain. ³I am not going to allow the town to just take my property, and will resist all efforts by the town to do so,² the letter reads. ³If the town is not successful [with the eminent domain process] and also does not approve the TCR development, I will continue to operate my lawful business.²
Which is exactly what the residents who turned out at the town board meeting are afraid of. Norton described the beleaguered hotel as ³a danger to residents and a danger that threatens the safety of our children.²
Murray showed some exasperation with residents, claiming the town is moving in the right direction to see the Courtesy shuttered. ³We have told you till we¹re blue in the face that something has been done,² she said, before turning the microphone over to John Saccardi of the consulting firm Saccardi and Schiff, the firm put in charge of drafting the town¹s urban renewal plan.
Saccardi stated that because of the town¹s planning, Trammell Crow Residential will actually be able to move ahead with its purchase faster. ³The process will include the rezoning and the urban renewal plan, which includes the environmental study, which Trammell Crow will need anyway,² Saccardi said. ³We¹re pretty close to getting to that point.²
Murray and the town¹s director of planning and economic development, Charles Theofan agreed that the town is doing the hard work for Trammell Crow, and will help the sale go through faster.
Some residents remain skeptical, and a key player in the Courtesy contract negotiations last year stated that the town is inexplicably dragging its heels. ³This is one of the rare times that the process is not being expedited and it¹s being delayed,² said Len Garden, a real estate broker responsible for bringing Trammell Crow and the Courtesy owner together in March 2006. ³I have never seen anything of this nature when the community is in support of the project.²
Garden was instrumental in brokering a deal between Avalon Bay Communities and the Town of Huntington in Suffolk County for a 438-unit apartment complex, he said. In that case, at the insistence of residents and the behest of the town, Avalon Bay had the project built and operating in less than two years. Garden stated that he thinks the Town of Hempstead might have ulterior motives for wanting to see the hotel taken through eminent domain. ³The town is not wanting to see this [sale] happen,² he said, ³and I believe are hoping the civics will quiet down and the developer will go away and they¹ll close down the Courtesy on their own and then take their time deciding what they want to do.²
At the meeting, officials said the next few steps would include a 30-day period for outside organizations such as the police and the MTA to weigh in with their input on the urban renewal plan. That will take the process to mid-July, when, Theofan said, the town would likely adopt the environmental impact study and the new zoning classification.
At a Mother¹s Day rally outside the Courtesy, Murray vowed to have the business closed by the end of this year. Norton and the WHCA say they would like to see it happen by October, to keep the issue from becoming ³a political football² in November. Murray and Councilman Edward Ambrosino, who represents West Hempstead on the Town Council, are both running for re-election Nov. 6.
Meanwhile, Trammell Crow remains cautiously hopeful, according to Garden. ³At this point in time, Trammell Crow is comfortable that the elected politicians will wake up,² Garden said. ³But if this continues on this path, somebody is going to say our resources are better served elsewhere. Developers don¹t want to go where they¹re not wanted.²
Comments about this story? Mal-wheditor@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 205.
