Hempstead Village wins $10 million in state revitalization aid

Hempstead Village will receive $10 million in state aid to revitalize its downtown, Gov. Kathy Hochul's office announced Friday.

The state awarded the money from its Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant. Local officials said it will help to grow the number of businesses on Main Street, expand housing offerings, and center the community as an arts destination.

The state also announced it was awarding $4.5 million to the Village of Farmingdale from its NY Forward grant. The state programs are designed to provide funding for projects that will boost the downtowns.

"Hempstead is a proud, hardworking community and this $10 million investment will actually go a long way in making our downtown a place again where families, businesses and visitors can thrive," Hempstead Village Mayor Waylyn Hobbs Jr. said Friday. "With these tools, it will help us to build a stronger, a more vibrant community." 

The DRI award kicks off a planning process that will determine how the grant gets allocated to specific projects in Hempstead. The village's application identified 14 "transformative" projects that could use some of the grant money. Those projects, which include public and private investment, total $544.3 million. The village request for DRI funding for those projects totals $12.9 million — more than the total grant.

"Our application was for economic development of our downtown, including several development projects, a lot of increased housing opportunities and walkability," said Danielle Oglesby, commissioner of the Village of Hempstead Community Development Agency. "The process entails the state planners coming to visit with us and working with us and our community for the best projects to assist us with our economic development." 

The projects in the application include: streetscape design to create public spaces, protected bike lanes and traffic calming measures; signage and "pedestrian amenities" to help residents and visitors find their way around the village; conversion of the Hempstead Bank on Main Street into an art gallery and artist lofts; redeveloping the Woolworth building for commercial uses including co-working spaces and a restaurant; creating a dining and entertainment corridor on Main Street; creating new and improving existing parks; a welcome center at the Long Island Rail Station; and hundreds of units of housing.

Oglesby said it's too soon to tell which projects will receive part of the $10 million DRI grant. 

“By investing nearly $15 million in revitalizing Hempstead and Farmingdale, we’re creating stronger communities that honor their history and possibility — paving a path for generations of Long Islanders to experience all they have to offer,” Hochul said in the news release.

The state's Downtown Revitalization Initiative in recent years has awarded funds to Kings Park and Smithtown, Huntington Station, Amityville, Hicksville, Westbury, Riverhead and Central Islip, among other communities on Long Island and statewide.

Farmingdale Mayor Ralph Ekstrand told Newsday the $4.5 million will be used to fund a new performing arts center in the village.

“We’ll have playhouse people come in. We’ll have movies, matinees. We’ll have the local theater groups, and we have three dance troupes in the village,” Ekstrand said of the proposed center. The village, he said, still needs to secure a property for the project.

“It will fill in a long-needed gap for entertainment in our downtown,” Ekstrand said. “You now can come into the downtown and besides having a great lunch or dinner, you can see a play or a movie or children performing.”

With Jonathan LaMantia