Amityville Village focuses on facades with $400G grants to businesses

Eight Amityville businesses will receive $400,000 in state funds to give their facades a facelift as part of a $10 million downtown improvement plan.

In January 2022, New York State awarded Amityville $10 million from its Downtown Revitalization Initiative program and last year approved 11 projects, including the facade program.

The businesses selected for facade upgrades are all at key locations, and the sprucing up will help draw people to the downtown, village officials and business district leaders said.

Amityville Music Hall, a music venue, and New China restaurant received the most funding, at $76,700 apiece. The music hall is replacing windows and putting up a new marquee awning, among other renovations taking place. The restaurant will stand out as one of the focal points in the downtown, with new trimwork and paneling, village Mayor Dennis Siry said. 

“It’s kind of like putting a brand new coat of paint on everything,” Siry said. “It’s judging a book by its cover, but the cover of a book sometimes will catch your eye and make you want to explore more.”

The state has set aside another $200,000 for costs related to the facade program, including $100,000 for murals, $40,000 for fees to architectural firms and $60,000 for Vision Long Island, a Northport nonprofit overseeing the program. The businesses will receive a total of $400,000, which covers about 80% of the facade work. Business owners will cover 20% of the expense.

With $10 million to spend, officials have allocated more than $5 million to traffic-calming measures on busy Broadway, the village's portion of Route 110, along with other pedestrian safety enhancements. 

The state implemented the Downtown Revitalization Initiative in 2016 and has awarded the funding to Long Island communities with downtowns, including Westbury, Hicksville, Baldwin and Central Islip. The eight businesses were chosen from a pool of 17 that were eligible for the grant.

A committee of village officials and residents scored the submissions, taking into account not only the location of each business but the impact of the upgrades on the rest of the downtown.

“With these eight projects scattered around the core of the downtown, it will kind of change the look,” said Elissa Kyle, placemaking director for Vision Long Island. “By lifting up those very prominent ones and making those look nice, for maybe the ones in between it will be a positive motivation to put a little extra effort into their appearance.”

Amityville Music Hall owner Daniel Valentino, 40, said the venue reopened this week after more than six months of work to the interior. He said the business was preparing to start exterior work when the grant came through.

“The place needed a facelift really badly. It wasn’t very inviting before,” he said. “This lined up perfectly for us.”

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.