$155M retail, affordable housing development under construction in Hempstead Village after multiyear stall

A $155 million retail and affordable housing project that stalled eight years ago is on track to be done in 2026 and is part of revitalization efforts tied to transit in the Village of Hempstead’s downtown, one of the developers said.

The project, whose name was changed from Carman Place to 159 Main St., will bring 228 mixed-income apartments and 22,600 square feet of ground-floor retail, including a Compare Fresh supermarket.

Because it is located a few blocks from LIRR and bus stations, the mixed-use project is considered a transit-oriented development, the village said.

Conifer LLC, a Rochester-based real estate company that specializes in building and managing affordable housing in New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania, is developing the Main Street project with Community Development Long Island, a Melville-based nonprofit developer and manager of housing.

"You know, we worked closely with the village and the mayor to provide a plan that encompasses both the needs for housing, but also economic development and commercial development," said Roger Pine, vice president of development at Conifer.

The company has built more than 12 communities on Long Island, including two transit-oriented developments that are similar to 159 Main St. — Copiague Commons and Port Jefferson Crossing Apartments, he said.

Conifer broke ground on the Main Street project in April 2023 and expects to complete the work in the fourth quarter of 2026, he said.

The 228 apartments will be split between two buildings totaling 323,198 square feet on 2.54 acres. One of the buildings, at the corner of Main and Bedell streets, will have commercial space on the ground floor below the residential units.

The studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments will range between 480 and 903 square feet.

Leases will be awarded through a lottery process closer to the project’s completion, Pine said. Eligible applicants must have household incomes of between 30% and 90% of the area median income, Conifer said.

Running into challenges

Conifer initially proposed the Main Street mixed-use project in 2016, but under then-mayor Don Ryan, developers proposing housing and other projects ran into challenges getting them added to the village’s agendas.

Ryan discouraged the approval of those developments, particularly when they required tax incentives.

That policy changed under Mayor Waylyn Hobbs Jr., who was elected in 2021.

Financial incentives, such as payments-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements, or PILOTs, like the one the 159 Main St. project received from the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency in 2022, are needed to attract developments to Hempstead, Hobbs said.

Furthermore, the goal is to expand housing development in the village to include new market-rate homes that attract young professionals and others who will shop and visit entertainment venues in Hempstead and draw new businesses to the village, he said.

"We are going beyond what we call affordable or low-income housing because Hempstead is already the capital of affordable housing when we compare ourselves to our neighbors, like Garden City and Rockville Centre," he said.

The 159 Main St. project is receiving more than $136 million in county, state and federal financial incentives, according to Conifer.

Proposed and approved financing sources include $46 million in Federal Tax Credit Equity, $20 million in Brownfield Tax Credits, $28 million in tax-exempt bonds from the New York State Housing Finance Agency, $2 million from Empire State Development Funds, and $2.2 million from Nassau County HOME Funds, Conifer said.

Also, New York State Homes and Community Renewal has approved $26 million from the New Capital Construction Program, $5.5 million from the Middle Income Housing Program, $3.8 million from the Federal Housing Trust Fund, and $2 million from the Rural and Urban Community Investment Fund.

The Hempstead IDA granted mortgage recording and sales tax exemptions, a 30-year PILOT on the residential portion and a 20-year PILOT on the commercial portion for the 159 Main St. project in 2022. Conifer said it was unsure of the financial savings associated with the package.

The IDA did not respond to Newsday’s requests for comment.

The 159 Main St. project, which received a building permit from the village in March 2023, is the first development being built in an overlay zone that the village created in 2012 to speed up the approval process for developers wishing to build commercial and residential projects in the area, said Joseph Simone Jr., superintendent of Hempstead’s building department.

The second project in the zone, Estella Housing, is being developed at 176 Main St. by Georgica Green Ventures and Concern for Independent Living, and received a building permit from the village in March 2023, he said. The development, which also received county, state and federal financial incentives, will bring 96 units of affordable housing.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.