Hempstead IDA grants preliminary approval for proposed 200-unit apartment project

September 12, 2023 - Long Island

Freeport, NY Frederick Parola, CEO of the town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency (IDA), said that its board has given initial approval to an application for economic development benefits from a Lawrence-based developer that plans to turn a former public housing development into a new 200-unit affordable rental apartment complex, the largest in the village.

The IDA board meeting gave preliminary approval to the benefits for The Gardens at Buffalo, LLC, an affiliate of BOSFA Properties, which plans to replace the decaying Moxey Rigby property, which was managed by the village’s housing authority since its construction in 1958 until it was damaged by Superstorm Sandy.

The project meets the Long Island Workforce Housing Act. Ten percent of the apartments will be set aside for workforce housing. A parking lot will be included in the project.

The application now is subject to further study, a public hearing, and a final authorizing resolution.

The $49 million project would generate 78 construction jobs and four permanent positions.   

The property has not generated any taxes for more than 50 years.

“It will be a tremendous asset in the Village of Freeport,” said mayor Robert Kennedy, who also represents Freeport on the town IDA. “This project will be a great success.”

The IDA’s Parola said, “This is a project with the potential to  further energize the Village of Freeport and provide a tremendous positive boost to the community by ridding it of a blighted structure and providing much-needed housing.”

BOSFA, operated by father and son Daniel and Aron Goldstein, specializes in distressed properties — BOSFA stands for Builders of Sustainable Family Apartments Of Sustainable Family Apartments — currently owns 664. units and has another 1,462 units under development, mostly in Nassau County.

BOSFA plans to gut and convert the blighted former Rigby houses, originally constructed in 1957 and now outdated, vacant, and blighted, into modern housing. It plans a 165,936-square-foot apartment complex with 10 studio, 100 one-bedroom, 70 two-bedroom, and 20 three-bedroom units. BOSFA has contracted to buy the 2 1/2-acre site from the village at 80-84 Albany Ave. and 17-33 Buffalo Ave. The project has the necessary zoning approvals.

The old complex was built more than 70 years ago as Moxey Rigby’s vision of what public housing in Freeport could be. Rigby was Nassau County’s first African-American elected judge. He went on to serve Freeport as vice chairman of the Freeport Housing Authority.

The housing authority maintained the building until Superstorm Sandy hit in 2012 and flooded the lower levels with as much as 10 feet of saltwater. The authority replaced the old buildings with a new Moxey Rigby project nearby. It opened on Dec. 10, 2019.

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