Construction delay for Hilton Garden Inn in Port Washington

Groundbreaking on a Hilton Garden Inn planned for Port Washington, the first hotel in northwestern Nassau County to carry a national brand name, has been pushed back until spring.

Construction on the $26 million, 165-room hotel was scheduled to begin this month, but delays in acquiring demolition permits have pushed it back to April.

"We were a little delayed to get all the final approvals and the permits needed to demolish the existing facility," said Paul Amoruso of Melville Hospitality, one of the hotel's developers. "We got our final site plan approval from the town last month."

The hotel, at 3 Harbor Park Dr., will take the place of an abandoned sports facility in the Harbor View Corporate Park, near the headquarters of consumer research firm NPD Group and filtration systems maker Pall Corp.

The developers, Amoruso and Larry Levine, will begin dismantling the sports facility next week and hope to have architectural plans for the hotel completed by year's end, Amoruso said.

A contractor has not yet been selected.

The hotel first received local planning approval in May, and in June, Nassau's industrial development agency gave the project a sales tax exemption of up to $950,000 on the purchase of construction materials, furniture and other items, and $210,000 off the mortgage recording tax.

The Port Washington project is the developers' fourth hotel development on Long Island.