Garden City's first new rental apartments in decades come with court-mandated affordable units

Tenants have started moving into a new luxury apartment complex in Garden City, which is the first development in decades to offer new rental apartments in the village.

Florent, a 150-unit, pet-friendly development on Stewart Avenue just south of Roosevelt Field mall, offers spacious apartments that rival the size of some Long Island houses, with high ceilings, double-sink bathroom vanities and walk-in closets.

Available units range from $4,600 for an 845-square-foot, one-bedroom unit to nearly $9,700 for a nearly 1,850-square-foot, three-bedroom apartment.

In addition to pricey rentals, Florent will offer 15 affordable units that start as low as $720 a month for a one-bedroom. The affordable units are tied to a federal housing discrimination lawsuit filed against the village in 2005 that played out over more than a decade. 

The lawsuit, filed by several community groups, alleged the village violated federal law and discriminated against African American and Hispanic households. The suit accused the village of rezoning two county-owned parcels in Garden City to prevent the construction of more than 300 units of low-and-middle income housing. 

A 2014 court order in that case required any new development in the village to include affordable units.

"That case served as a marker to demonstrate something needed to change," said civil rights attorney Frederick K. Brewington, who represented the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Garden City with Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and law firm Hogan Lovells. "Now, we see at least the remnants of change taking place in Garden City."

In 2019, Nashville-based Southern Land Co. acquired the 4½-acre property for Florent, which is about 2 miles from the site at issue in the lawsuit, for $22.5 million. The company said it spent $100 million to develop the site.   

Florent provides an option for empty nesters and downsizers to stay on Long Island, said Ronan Kearney, Southern Land senior vice president and head of property management.

“Maybe you don't want to do all the maintenance yourself anymore. Maybe the kids have left for college and you're looking for different solutions,” Kearney said. “We did feel that for Garden City, these options were needed." 

Southern Land manages its own properties and has an onsite staff of 10, including a concierge. The company said it will add more staff as units fill up. 

The complex's lobby area features private meeting rooms that can be reserved, as well as a club room with a dual-sided gas fireplace and bar. Outside, residents have access to a large swimming pool, a whirlpool, outdoor grills and firepits in a community sundeck area. 

“The idea is to make people feel like they’re living in a resort,” Kearney said.

About 25% of the units are leased so far.

Southern Land struck an agreement with the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency in 2021 for more than $3 million in tax exemptions and a 21-year payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, agreement. It will pay an average of $1.3 million, or $8,700 per unit, in PILOT payments through 2043. 

Florent is offering the first new rental apartments — at any price point — in the Village of Garden City since at least 1971, according to Southern Land. Newsday reviewed commercial real estate data from CoStar and public records and could not find any rentals built in the village since that time, while several for-sale condo buildings were added.

In an emailed statement, Garden City Mayor Mary Carter Flanagan said: "We are very excited for the opening of the Florent and welcome the new neighbors to our wonderful village." She declined to answer further questions about the significance of the new units. 

While some Long Islanders might balk at the price of luxury apartments, if the units lure local homeowners who sell their houses, that could create opportunities for other families, said Mike Florio, CEO of the Long Island Builders Institute, a trade group representing residential builders in Islandia.

“Long Island is in such desperate need of all types of housing that all markets are unsatisfied, Florio said. “Whether it is low-income, workforce, luxury, ultraluxury, 55 and older — we have such a short supply and there’s such strong demand for all needs and income levels.

Fight for affordable housing 

Sha'velle Davis, 35, rents one of the 15 affordable units at Florent, which she applied for through a housing lottery run by the nonprofit Long Island Housing Partnership. She and her boyfriend, Terrell Dobson, 36, and their 3-year-old daughter, River Dobson, moved to Florent from Jamaica, Queens. 

They’re renting a nearly 1,300-square-foot, two-bedroom unit for $1,690 a month, which is more affordable than the $1,750 they had paid for a 500-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment in Queens.

Davis said she didn't want to get too excited when she received a voicemail from Long Island Housing Partnership saying she was selected — at least not until she got to tour the unit. 

"Once we finally got to see the apartment, I was like, 'Oh, this is beautiful,'" said Davis, a fashion designer and seamstress who designed a bodysuit worn by recording artist Lizzo on the cover of Entertainment Weekly in 2020. "You just imagine how you can decorate it."

After utility and amenity fees to cover internet, trash removal and gym access, the couple pays about $1,900.

"I just feel like I'm very lucky and blessed to be able to live here," Davis said. "I don't take it for granted." 

There were more than 4,000 applications for the 15 affordable apartments.

The 2005 housing discrimination lawsuit, which led to the village's affordable housing requirement, paved the way for Davis' eventual move to Garden City.

That year, the now-defunct community organizing group ACORN NY sued the Village of Garden City after it rezoned the 25-acre site of the former Social Services office complex to prevent affordable housing from being built. Nonprofit developer Mutual Housing Association of New York and organizing group New York Communities for Change later took over as plaintiffs in the case.

In 2013, U.S. District Judge Arthur Spatt ruled Garden City "acted with discriminatory intent" in its decision to rezone the site.

The zoning decision rejected a potential change that would have allowed multifamily housing in favor of a different category allowing townhouses, except for a small portion of the site, according to court documents. The decision "significantly decreased the potential pool of minority residents likely to move into housing" at the site and resulted in racial discrimination, Spatt wrote.

Garden City defended the decision in court as a response to legitimate concerns about traffic, taxes and an increase in school children, according to court documents.

Spatt, who died in 2020, said public backlash to the proposed affordable housing "reflected race-based animus" or could have been construed that way by the village board of trustees. 

Spatt wrote the village's decision "tended to perpetuate segregation in that community."

Brewington, the plaintiffs' attorney, said this week the case highlighted how local governments on Long Island have used restrictive rules around where housing can be built to prevent Black and Hispanic people from moving into certain communities. 

The ruling "illustrated that Garden City and Nassau County both had some real responsibility in making affordable housing less available than it should have been to persons who were in need and that was based on race and color," he said. 

As part of his judgment in the case, Spatt ruled in 2014 that the village must require 10% affordable units in any new housing development with five or more units with no option for a developer to buy out of the requirement. Those units must remain affordable through a deed restriction, according to the ruling. 

In 2018, a federal judge ordered Garden City to pay the plaintiff nonprofit groups $5.3 million in attorneys' fees and costs, Newsday previously reported. The following year, Nassau County agreed to pay $5.4 million to nonprofit developer MHANY Management to support the construction of mixed-income affordable housing on Long Island.

At Florent, several units are available at prices far below other options in the area. Two one-bedroom units have rents of $720 a month and four two-bedroom units have rents of $908 a month.

To qualify for those units, applicants needed to earn no more than $32,800 for an individual or $46,850 for a family of four, which is equivalent to 30% of the median income on Long Island. Other units allow individuals to earn as much $87,500 or $112,500 for a family of three. 

When informed about the units’ connection to a racial discrimination settlement, Davis said, "That's really beautiful." 

Davis said she has been encouraging friends and family to apply for other available housing lotteries.

“It doesn’t hurt to apply,” she said. “It takes 10 minutes. You can get so much more for your money.”

With Laura Mann

By Jonathan LaMantia

jonathan.lamantia@newsday.com@jonlamantia

Jonathan LaMantia covers residential real estate and other business news on Long Island. He previously covered the business of health care for Crain's New York Business.