Fred Parola, CEO of the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency (IDA), said the agency has given preliminary approval to a package of economic development incentives that will assist a national developer of multi-family housing construct a 150-unit apartment building in West Hempstead.
The IDA on Jan. 31 approved a preliminary inducement resolution for MCRT Investments LLC, a subsidiary of Boca Raton, FL-based Mill Creek Residential Trust LLC. The benefits package is subject to further IDA review, a public hearing and a final authorizing resolution.
Mill Creek is proposing to develop and construct a 176, 912 square foot residential rental apartment building on a 2.34-acre site at 103-29 Woodfield Road, West Hempstead, the site of a long-closed Western Beef Supermarket. Mill Creek is in contract for the site.
The project would be comprised of 150 units, including 90 one-bedroom units, 49 two-bedroom units, and 11 three-bedroom units, as well as 200 on-site parking spaces. Ten percent of the units will be set aside as affordable housing. The $71.5 million project, which abuts the LIRR tracks, would generate 244 construction jobs. The project is a 2-minute walk to the West Hempstead rail station.
“This project, if approved, will help to fulfill the overwhelming demand for rental housing in the town and keep young professionals, millennials and empty nesters here in our community,” said Parola.
Current annual taxes on site of $188,866 will gradually increase to $1.4 million upon completion of a proposed 25-year PILOT agreement.
Mill Creek also developed the 150-unit apartment complex West 130 in West Hempstead in 2013, which it then sold.
The IDA’s assistance to rental housing is a legitimate IDA function, according to ruling by the State Comptroller and the courts, because the projects promote employment opportunities and serves to combat economic deterioration in an area served by the IDA.
