Hicksville development expected to boost downtown revitalization effort gets tax breaks

Demolition work could begin next month to make way for a mixed-used development beside Hicksville's Long Island Rail Road station that recently won tax breaks from Nassau County's Industrial Development Agency, officials said.

Besides the upcoming demolition work, within 30 days Oyster Bay officials are expected to consider final construction drawings for the project that will include 189 apartments and retail space, according to town spokesman Brian Nevin.

Then shovels could be in the ground by year's end for the construction of what will become the first new transit-oriented development project in Hicksville's rezoned downtown, according to Bram  Weber, an attorney for the project.

The reimagining of Hicksville as a walkable community anchored by the LIRR station has been discussed and planned for more than a decade, with the town rezoning the area in 2021 to allow for mixed-use development.

With this project, years of planning and community input finally will start to take shape. Oyster Bay's Planning Advisory Board approved the site plan in March. 

“It's a big shot in the arm, long time coming,” said Eric Alexander, director of Vision Long Island, a nonprofit that has pushed for Hicksville revitalization for many years.

The project will include 7,660 square feet of commercial space and 338 parking spaces on two below-ground levels of a structure that will rise four stories above ground at 99 Newbridge Road.

The residential part of the new building will include studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments — with 19 that will rent at lower rates as affordable housing units.

Last month, Nassau's IDA approved tax breaks that include a 20-year payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, agreement that will reduce the amount of money the developer would have spent on property taxes. 

The PILOT plan starts with annual payments rising from $280,165 in the first year to $2.1 million in the final year. The project also will receive a sales tax exemption with an estimated value of $4 million and a $606,640 mortgage recording tax exemption.

Weber, the project attorney, said construction of the development, a joint venture between Manhattan-based companies Alpine Residential and Beachwold Residential, should last two years.

The project will be "the first major project to break ground in Hicksville’s renaissance,” Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino said in a statement. “Hicksville is rising with real downtown redevelopment that benefits our entire community.”

Separate from 99 Newbridge Road, a state grant of $8.7 million will pay for infrastructure improvements and open-space projects around the LIRR station — part of a stalled downtown revitalization plan that gained traction again last year after town and state officials agreed on a revised set of projects.