Brookfield eyes $400M mixed-use project in Manhasset
Brookfield Properties plans to spend $400 million to redevelop 16 acres of a 28-acre site in Manhasset into a mixed-use project featuring housing, office space, retail and a hotel that it will call Manhasset Square, Long Island Business News reported. Currently, the property holds a 332,000-square-foot Macy’s department store and a large parking lot. Macy’s will continue to run its store and retain ownership of the the land immediately around it, but Brookfield plans to purchase the rest. Brookfield proposed the project in May and will soon make a formal pitch to the Town of North Hempstead. When built, Manhasset Square will have 355 rental apartments, 72,000 square feet of office space, 73,400 square feet of retail, a 200-room hotel and 2,271 parking spaces. Most of the apartments will be one-bedrooms, but Brookfield told Newsday last week that two- and three-bedrooms will likely also be built. Some elected officials are concerned that the proposed development will bring heavy traffic and congestion to an otherwise quiet residential area. Brookfield is still in the process of getting the proper approvals. Construction on Manhasset Square is expected to begin in 2021, with completion likely two years later. [TRD]
Lake Success home in Whitney Houston film lists for $6.3M
A mansion in Lake Success where scenes were shot for “The Preacher’s Wife,” a 1996 film starring the late Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington, has returned to the market with a $6.288 million ask, Newsday reported. The property at 128 Windsor Gate has also made cameos in commercials for Budweiser and Jimmy Choo. It even appeared in an episode of MTV’s “Cribs.” The home, which was built in 1993, has six bedrooms, five-and-a-half bathrooms and a banquet-size dining room with marble floors, as well as a gym, spa, wine cellar and a chef’s kitchen “designed to withstand the rigors of grand entertaining,” according to its listing with Eva Lee of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. Outside the home there is a porte cochere, a circular driveway, a four-car garage, a heated saltwater pool and an outdoor kitchen with a pizza oven. Property records show that the home previously sold for $6.6 million in December 2013 after being listed a year earlier. [Newsday]
Art Deco building in Freeport to be razed after $6.3M sale
The Freeport Village Zoning Board of Appeals has voted 4 to 1 in favor of razing a long vacant Art Deco building built in 1929 and replace it with 40,000-square-foot Lexus dealership, Newsday reported. The board voted in April to sell the land between Sunrise Highway and Freeport’s train station to the Atlantic Auto Group for $6.3 million. The lawyer representing the buyer, Dominick Minerva of Valley Stream-based Minerva & D’Agostino, said the location is “ideal” and the future dealership “will be in keeping with the character of the area.” But preservationists decried the move to demolish the six-story former Meadowbrook Bank building, which has been empty since the 1980s. Freeport officials have long weighed what to do with the site. For a period, the village considered redeveloping it into a mixed-use facility with rental apartments. The DiNoto Group had even been contracted to build there, but officials later sued the Huntington-based developer to end its contract. [Newsday]
First tenants move in as Ronkonkoma Hub project continues
The first tenants have moved into the $750 million Ronkonkoma Hub, a 53-acre, mixed-use development of apartments, stores, restaurants and offices, Newsday reported. This first apartment building to open is called the Alston, and it contains 129 units. The second apartment building, with its 116 units, will open in July. The hub, which is officially named Station Square, will have another four apartment buildings when completed by East Setauket-based Tritec Real Estate, one of the largest developers on Long Island. Five of those buildings will rise four stories above Mill Road. There will also be an area that includes townhouses, bringing the total number of units up to 1,450. The Alston’s 492-square-foot one-bedroom units are going for $1,700 a month, while the 1,192-square-foot two-bedrooms are renting $3,150 per month. Amenities at the Alston include a pool, two fitness centers, a yoga room, several clubrooms, a game room and courtyards that have fire pits and grilling stations. When complete, the new Station Square will also include 195,000 square feet of office space, 360,000 square feet of retail space and another 60,000 square feet for hospitality and community spaces. [Newsday]
Developers to improve Elmont parks in bid for new arena
The Hempstead Town Board granted New York Arena Partners, the development group behind a proposed new arena for the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders, access to two nearby parks to study possible improvements there, according to Newsday. Under the agreement, the developers will inventory security cameras and lighting at the parks, while also surveying land, soil and groundwater at Elmont Road Park and Hendrickson Avenue Park. The developers will spend at least $1.5 million on the parks as they seek to push forward on construction this summer for a 19,000-seat arena that will anchor a proposed $1.2 billion mixed-use project on redeveloped land near the famous Belmont Park racetrack. When done, the development will have a 250-room hotel and 435,000 square feet of retail. The project is still going through an environmental review. Empire State Development expects that review to conclude by July. [Newsday]