Town of Hempstead to buy Capri Motel for $9 million

The Town of Hempstead plans to buy the Capri Motor Inn for $9 million in a deal that will settle lawsuits over the condemned property, according to town and court documents.

The Hempstead Town Board earlier this week approved borrowing the money to purchase the property, also known as the Capri Motel, at 434 Hempstead Tpke.

In a statement Thursday, Town Attorney John Maccarone said the settlement was a “win-win for residents” that will “clean up a longtime community blight.”

Garden City-based attorney Christian Browne of McLaughlin & Stern LLP, who is one of the attorneys representing the owners, declined to comment.

The town has not decided what to do with the property, Maccarone said at the town board meeting Tuesday.

“The supervisor has looked into a recreational facility, it could be a parking lot, the town could in the future decide to sell it,” Maccarone said. “There could be senior citizen housing, there could be veterans housing there. … Those things will be decided in the future.”

In 2023, the town shuttered the motel for alleged safety violations. This prompted the owner, L&S Realty Co., to sue the town. The town responded by declaring the property a nuisance, alleging it was a nexus of illegal activity — which the owners have denied — and condemning it.

In a Jan. 30, 2024, hearing, Browne told the town board it could not condemn the property to get rid of a nuisance.

"You cannot say that you’re going to take someone’s private property because you don’t like the people who operated it or you deem it to be a nuisance,” Browne told the board at that meeting, arguing that eminent domain required a public purpose, such as a recreation center.

The town then hired a consultant to prepare a preliminary plan to build a recreation center on the site. That plan was intended to expand recreational opportunities for West Hempstead residents, and an 18,500-square-foot, one-story building, with approximately 50 parking spaces on a 1.1-acre site, was considered, Newsday previously reported.

The sale appears to end the condemnation process that the owners had challenged in court. In a condemnation, the governmental agency pays the owner what it thinks the property is worth, but disputes over valuation can lead to years of litigation and large legal bills.

According to court filings, the parties have agreed to dismiss two lawsuits in state court as well as a lawsuit in federal court.

In a Jan. 30 letter to U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven Locke, attorney Joseph Macy, of Berkman, Henoch, Peterson & Peddy PC, wrote on behalf of the town that the property had been surveyed and the parties had agreed to a settlement and sale.