Bryant Plaza to add 54 apartments in Roslyn near LIRR station this fall
Bryant Plaza, a 54-unit luxury building in Roslyn, has started leasing and will start welcoming residents on Oct. 1. Credit: John Roca
A luxury apartment building with 54 units and ground-floor retail space will open this fall adjacent to the Roslyn train station after a six-year redevelopment of a former strip mall.
The building will have a mix of one- and two-bedroom units and monthly rents for the one-bedroom units will start at $3,950. Units range from 800 to about 1,750 square feet.
Construction took about 22 months, and the total cost was more than $40 million, according to Jerry Karlik, principal of the Port Washington-based developer JK Equities.
Karlik said he and his son Jordan, who’s also a principal at JK Equities, knew there was a need for housing in the area. Karlik said he tried to purchase the site several times, dating to the late 1990s, before buying it for $4.2 million in 2018. The family has lived in Roslyn since 1986.
"We knew the demand was there for additional housing," Jerry Karlik said. "Being Roslyn residents for 40 years, we knew there was a lack of rental properties in the area."
He expects the building to attract young commuters, parents who want access to Roslyn schools but haven’t been able to find a house, retirees who are downsizing and divorced parents who want to stay close to their children, Karlik said.
JK Equities hired Douglas Elliman agents Wendy Sanders and Peter Crifo to handle marketing and leasing for Bryant Plaza. Tenants are expected to start moving in Oct. 1.
The building, which is seeking restaurant tenants for its 6,600 square feet of ground-floor space, links residents to both the Long Island Rail Road and downtown Roslyn, Sanders said.
"What is unique about this is you don’t have to have a car," Sanders said. "You’re right across from the train but in very close proximity to the park, the town and everything Roslyn has to offer. That’s what sets this building apart."
Roslyn Village officials paved the way for the development when they approved a zoning change in 2020 to encourage transit-oriented development on two 1-acre commercial lots. At the time, it had faced resistance from the Roslyn School District and some residents, Newsday reported.
The village had been looking for opportunities for transit-oriented development as a way to attract younger working professionals and the Warner Avenue site was well-suited for such a plan, said Mayor John Durkin.
"That was a pretty rundown strip mall. This seems to be such an improvement," Durkin said. “ ... I really wanted to help where I could and consider people that would move into the village and grow with the village."
JK Equities had initially proposed as many as 72 units but scaled back its plans as it worked to get approval from the village.
About 20% of the units, 11 apartments, were set aside for people earning around the area median income. Five were designated for people earning up to 80% of area median income, or $87,500 for an individual, and another six for people earning up to 120% of area median income, or $131,200 for an individual. Those income limits increase for households of two or more people.
The units limited to people earning 80% of AMI had rents of $2,350 for a one-bedroom or $2,931 for a two bedroom. The other six at the higher income band offered a smaller discount, with one-bedroom units at $3,599 and two-bedroom units at $4,493.
Long Island Housing Partnership led the application process for those units, which ended in July, and tenants will be selected through a lottery.
The market-rate two-bedroom units start at $5,550 a month.
"The area does command these types of rents for a few reasons," Karlik said. "One is there’s very little new housing on the North Shore of Long Island. Building costs after COVID increased significantly, so to build a good product today, you really need to get good rents to achieve the kind of returns to be able to finance a project."
The building will include a fitness center and a business center to cater to residents who work from home. There also will be an automated locker system to handle parcel deliveries. Bryant Plaza will offer additional space for storage, including wine storage units.
The building will have 103 parking spaces, including 73 below ground, and will offer electric vehicle charging stations. Karlik said the building has the capacity to build as many as 42 charging stations, if there is demand for them.
The developer received tax benefits from the Nassau County IDA including a $1 million sales tax exemption on construction materials, furniture and fixtures, and a nearly $187,000 mortgage recording tax exemption.
JK Equities agreed to a 22-year payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, agreement, in 2021 in which it agreed to pay $10.7 million in PILOT payments over the term, or about $326,000 a year. Without the project, the property would have generated nearly $3.6 million in property taxes over the same 22-year period, according to analysis conducted for the IDA.
The building was designed by Greenvale-based architecture and interior design firm Mojo Stumer Associates.
JK Equities participated in the state Brownfield Cleanup Program to address solvents that had been improperly disposed of by the dry cleaner, and Karlik said it was able to do so to the satisfaction of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
A luxury apartment building with 54 units and ground-floor retail space will open this fall adjacent to the Roslyn train station after a six-year redevelopment of a former strip mall.
The building will have a mix of one- and two-bedroom units and monthly rents for the one-bedroom units will start at $3,950. Units range from 800 to about 1,750 square feet.
Construction took about 22 months, and the total cost was more than $40 million, according to Jerry Karlik, principal of the Port Washington-based developer JK Equities.
Karlik said he and his son Jordan, who’s also a principal at JK Equities, knew there was a need for housing in the area. Karlik said he tried to purchase the site several times, dating to the late 1990s, before buying it for $4.2 million in 2018. The family has lived in Roslyn since 1986.
WHAT TO KNOW
- A new luxury apartment building with 54 units has started leasing and will open to residents in the fall.
- Bryant Plaza was developed by Port Washington-based JK Equities, which first purchased the site in 2018.
- Rents for one-bedroom units start at $3,950. Eleven units were set aside for people earning around the area's median income.
"We knew the demand was there for additional housing," Jerry Karlik said. "Being Roslyn residents for 40 years, we knew there was a lack of rental properties in the area."
He expects the building to attract young commuters, parents who want access to Roslyn schools but haven’t been able to find a house, retirees who are downsizing and divorced parents who want to stay close to their children, Karlik said.
JK Equities hired Douglas Elliman agents Wendy Sanders and Peter Crifo to handle marketing and leasing for Bryant Plaza. Tenants are expected to start moving in Oct. 1.
The building, which is seeking restaurant tenants for its 6,600 square feet of ground-floor space, links residents to both the Long Island Rail Road and downtown Roslyn, Sanders said.
"What is unique about this is you don’t have to have a car," Sanders said. "You’re right across from the train but in very close proximity to the park, the town and everything Roslyn has to offer. That’s what sets this building apart."
Zoning change paves way
Roslyn Village officials paved the way for the development when they approved a zoning change in 2020 to encourage transit-oriented development on two 1-acre commercial lots. At the time, it had faced resistance from the Roslyn School District and some residents, Newsday reported.
The village had been looking for opportunities for transit-oriented development as a way to attract younger working professionals and the Warner Avenue site was well-suited for such a plan, said Mayor John Durkin.
"That was a pretty rundown strip mall. This seems to be such an improvement," Durkin said. “ ... I really wanted to help where I could and consider people that would move into the village and grow with the village."
JK Equities had initially proposed as many as 72 units but scaled back its plans as it worked to get approval from the village.
About 20% of the units, 11 apartments, were set aside for people earning around the area median income. Five were designated for people earning up to 80% of area median income, or $87,500 for an individual, and another six for people earning up to 120% of area median income, or $131,200 for an individual. Those income limits increase for households of two or more people.
The units limited to people earning 80% of AMI had rents of $2,350 for a one-bedroom or $2,931 for a two bedroom. The other six at the higher income band offered a smaller discount, with one-bedroom units at $3,599 and two-bedroom units at $4,493.
Long Island Housing Partnership led the application process for those units, which ended in July, and tenants will be selected through a lottery.
The market-rate two-bedroom units start at $5,550 a month.
"The area does command these types of rents for a few reasons," Karlik said. "One is there’s very little new housing on the North Shore of Long Island. Building costs after COVID increased significantly, so to build a good product today, you really need to get good rents to achieve the kind of returns to be able to finance a project."
The building will include a fitness center and a business center to cater to residents who work from home. There also will be an automated locker system to handle parcel deliveries. Bryant Plaza will offer additional space for storage, including wine storage units.
The building will have 103 parking spaces, including 73 below ground, and will offer electric vehicle charging stations. Karlik said the building has the capacity to build as many as 42 charging stations, if there is demand for them.
The developer received tax benefits from the Nassau County IDA including a $1 million sales tax exemption on construction materials, furniture and fixtures, and a nearly $187,000 mortgage recording tax exemption.
JK Equities agreed to a 22-year payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, agreement, in 2021 in which it agreed to pay $10.7 million in PILOT payments over the term, or about $326,000 a year. Without the project, the property would have generated nearly $3.6 million in property taxes over the same 22-year period, according to analysis conducted for the IDA.
The building was designed by Greenvale-based architecture and interior design firm Mojo Stumer Associates.
JK Equities participated in the state Brownfield Cleanup Program to address solvents that had been improperly disposed of by the dry cleaner, and Karlik said it was able to do so to the satisfaction of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
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.
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