Lawrence batting cage owner who owes $26,000 in back rent facing eviction

It may be the bottom of the ninth inning for a Lawrence batting cage business. But owner Marty Rosen hopes to go into extra innings.

State Department of Transportation officials are threatening to evict Rosen's company, Five Towns Mini Golf and Batting Range, from its Rockaway Turnpike location in less than a month for nonpayment of more than $26,000 in rent.

The move came about six months after the agency imposed an 82% rent hike on the business, which sits on a DOT right-of-way.

Rosen, 80, told Newsday he can't afford the rent hike, but he vowed to fight as hard as he can to keep the 46-year-old business open.

“It’s obvious that we can’t continue with that kind of an increase. It’s impossible,” Rosen said Monday. “It’s sickening."

In a July 8 letter to Rosen, DOT officials said Five Towns would be evicted in 30 days unless he paid the $26,415 the department said he owes in back rent. Rosen has held a use-and-occupancy permit to operate on the site since 1976, when the DOT scrapped plans to use it for an extension of the Nassau Expressway. The business opened in 1978.

The letter also said Rosen could be charged a 22% collection fee and was subject to investigation by the state attorney general's office.

In a statement to Newsday, a DOT spokesman did not directly address the Five Towns case but said permits such as the one held by Rosen "are cancelable on 30 days’ notice and remain in effect while the permittee is in full compliance with the permit’s terms, including timely paying the taxpayers for the use of state lands in full."

The DOT on Jan. 1 raised Rosen's rent from $6,400 to $11,700, saying the hike was based on an appraisal of the property's fair market value. DOT officials have said they have no plans to use the site.

Rosen said he has been paying the old monthly rent, $6,400, since the beginning of the year. Paying the new rent would be difficult for the seasonal business, which operates about eight months each year, Rosen said, adding he also is repaying a $150,000 federal Small Business Administration loan that helped him get through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I don’t know what else to do. I can’t just shut the place down,” Rosen said, adding he hopes to meet with DOT officials later this week to discuss a payback schedule. “They just might bite. I don’t know.”

Five Towns, which has been visited over the years by baseball stars such as Darryl Strawberry, Ray Knight, Mookie Wilson and Howard Johnson, is popular with school groups and summer camps.

Rosen, who runs the facility with his son, Matthew, said he regularly opens the batting cages for special visits from programs serving developmentally disabled children. The business also has paintball and an arcade.

Marty Rosen said he loves working and is not ready to retire.

“I need more income, unfortunately," he said. “I still need a salary.”

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.