Nigel Mohammed of Wantagh, owner of home improvement company, dies at 44

When a hurricane destroyed his sister’s Florida house, high-end home contractor Nigel Mohammed spent months with his employees renovating an old property into a new place for her, even equipping it with life vests.

“Everything Nigel built was kind of a love letter to this gift he had and also to the people he would build these homes for,” said the sister, Nisha Whitehead of Port St. Joe, Florida. “My house was a love letter to me. He wouldn’t just build a square room. He would build these amazing molding and shadow boxes and curved entry ways.

“He just had this restless energy. He always wanted to do more, learn more.”

But before the owner of Vander Home Improvements could take dreams to the next level, he died in a motorcycle crash on June 7. The Wantagh resident was 44.

Mohammed had built Vander Home Improvements from determination, his family said. He started in the field as a landscape laborer, then a flooring guy, and when his employer retired, he bought all the equipment to start his own company. He began “relentlessly” visiting North Shore construction sites to ask for work, offering to do a job for free so developers could see his workmanship, those who knew him said.

Success allowed him to expand to kitchens, staircases and all sorts of interior design, a “visual artist” who found his niche transforming something broken or basic.

“He was so likable that clients fell in love with him and just continued to hire him for more and more parts of the project,” said kitchen designer Cathy Mullane, who collaborated with him for years. “He would think outside the box and had the ability to bring an enthusiasm into jobs to push the client into a place where they wouldn’t expect to be.”

The Wantagh native showed construction skills as a kid who had to be constantly active, relatives said. At age 13, he built a backyard treehouse from a massive, wood shipping crate, they said, and also constructed an awning above a home entry door.

Nigel had decided at age 10 to be the man in the family when his father died, recalled his mother, Lynette Mohammed of Wantagh. He wanted success so he could afford land big enough to build cottages for each family member and for relatives when they came for vacation, she said.

“Growing up, all he talked about was taking care of everything,” his mother said. “He would have dreams, always about making sure the family was together and we were all happy.”

He also cemented a reputation as “mama’s boy.” In one of his mother’s favorite memories, she was sick in bed watching "Grease 2" on video and when the song she loved ended, the little boy repeatedly rewound it for her, asking “Mommy, one more time?”

In choosing his own home, Mohammed bought a property blocks away from his mother. He revamped the house, doubling its size and expanding the driveway to fit his four cars.

Mohammed could dream and talk about 10 things at once, fueled by his entrepreneurial spirit and what he called his “Energizer Bunny” personality, those who knew him said. He had started the now-shuttered Amerrickana Tapas Bar in Merrick and recently traveled to China to see if he could launch a home products line under his company name.

He was always ready for fun, no matter how late, family and friends said. The bachelor loved hosting parties on his 36-foot boat, called “Never Satisfied,” and taking it to Fire Island. If a friend called at 3 a.m. to party in Manhattan, he would say “I’ll be dressed in 15 minutes.”

“He was the life of everything,” said Chuck Robotsis, a longtime best friend. “His energy was so unbelievable. He motivated me to do a lot of things. If you needed help, he’d be right there to help you.”

Besides his mother and sister Nisha Whitehead, Mohammed is also survived by his sister, Anisa Mohammed of Baltimore, Maryland.

A service was held June 15 at the Charles J. O’Shea Funeral Home in Wantagh, followed by cremation.