By GREGORY ZELLER //
It’s been a busy day for Long Island redevelopment initiatives, with New York State announcing significant progress – and seven figures in fresh support – for projects across Nassau and Suffolk.
On Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office announced the first funding round for the Restore New York Communities Initiative, which seeks to simultaneously restore specific blighted properties and reinvigorate entire downtown areas. The $102 million funding round includes a $1.27 million stipend for the Town of North Hempstead’s New Cassel Workforce Housing project.
Also Tuesday, the two Long Island winners in the most recent Downtown Revitalization Initiative competition – Amityville and Riverhead, whose $10 million awards were announced in January – revealed the slate of “transformational projects” Albany’s awards will cover.
In North Hempstead, the Restore New York funding will assist with the rehabilitation and restoration of three abandoned properties in the Hamlet of New Cassel. The eyesores will be transformed into low-income housing, with private homes offered to first-time homebuyers earning at or below 80 percent of the Area Medium Income, according to the governor’s office.
Kathy Hochul: Jumpstarting economic engines.
A total of 64 statewide projects shared $81.7 million in Restore New York’s first funding round. Individual awards ranged from $9.75 million for the City of Albany – which is reinvigorating a severely blighted, highly visible downtown warehouse into a mixed-use commercial/residential property with 100-plus apartments – to $1 million for The Castle, a unique multi-use facility in the City of Syracuse.
Other big-ticket Round 1 items include $6 million for the Village of Endicott, which is renovating a former IBM facility, and $4 million for the City of Utica, where rehabilitation of the historic Mayro Building is underway.
The Restore New York program is “breathing new life into communities from Hudson to North Hempstead,” Hochul said Tuesday.
“These Restore New York grants will help to reimagine downtowns across our state and transform vacant, blighted and underutilized buildings into vibrant community anchors,” the governor added. “Thanks to $102 million of state investment, we are … jumpstarting new economic activity and ensuring that New York State continues to be a place where people come to live, work and raise their families.”
The New York State Department of State, meanwhile, has greenlighted multifaceted downtown-redevelopment plans in Amityville and Riverhead, which split the $20 million regional mega-prize in the latest DRI competition.
Amityville’s master strategy includes 11 separate projects, all focused on enhancing the village’s connectivity and natural beauty. Planned work includes roadway and pedestrian improvements along key stretches of Broadway, a facelift for the Amityville Long Island Rail Road station and development of a new mixed-use building on Greene Avenue, among other downtown improvements.
Next stage: Improvements are coming to Riverhead’s historic Suffolk Theater.
“We are grateful to New York State and all those who contributed to this grant process, from our Downtown Revitalization Committee – who got the ball rolling in the very beginning – to the local committee and DRI teams who guided us throughout the process,” Amityville Mayor Dennis Siry said in a statement. “All of Amityville will benefit from this transformative funding for our downtown.”
In Riverhead, eight revitalization projects are on tap, with special attention on enhanced streetscapes, expanded cultural activities and new housing opportunities.
Individual efforts include a new town square-type public plaza along the city’s riverfront, upgrades to the historic Suffolk Theater and a new mixed-use Griffing Avenue development combining retail space and workforce housing.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone applauded Riverhead’s “ongoing revitalization efforts,” noting town officials have “worked incredibly hard to reinvigorate their business districts and bring new life into their communities,” while Riverhead Supervisor Yvette Aguiar offered Albany a seasonal salute.
“For millions around the world, this is the season for believing,” Aguiar noted. “Thank you, Gov. Hochul, for believing in the future of Downtown Riverhead.”
