Freeport’s Moxey Rigby units to be replaced in the next two years
Renderings of the new Moxey Rigby Apartment on Thursday, March 3, 2016 in Freeport. Credit: Handout
Residents in Freeport’s 60-year-old Moxey Rigby apartment buildings will be moved to a new complex within the next two years, the village mayor and housing authority officials announced Thursday.
“Once the new Moxey Rigby property is complete, residents will have access to modern-day laundry facilities, meeting rooms and recreation areas, a new playground and sports areas for kids and, perhaps most important of all, elevators, which is hugely important to families with small children and especially older residents,” said Mayor Robert T. Kennedy.
He spoke before approximately 100 people, including county officials and tenants.
The new complex will be on the west side of Buffalo Avenue, just north of Merrick Road, opposite the old one. Once it is complete, its 102 apartments will be in one elongated building instead of the six now in use. After the older complex is empty it will be demolished, officials said.
Freeport Housing Authority Chairman Joseph Cattano told the audience: “What we are calling the new Moxey Rigby complex will create state-of-the-art housing with new amenities that will make life easier and more pleasant for the residents. People who had lived in the old buildings will be able to move directly across the street into the new complex.”
Both Kennedy and Cattano said the complex will keep the name of Moxey Rigby, the first black judge in Nassau County, who was from Freeport.
In October 2012, superstorm Sandy severely damaged the facility, causing flooding in boiler rooms, laundry facilities and other areas, leaving much of its infrastructure — already outmoded — beyond repair, village officials said.
The new Moxey Rigby will cost about $30 million, said Housing Authority executive director John Hrvatin. He said a variety of state and federal agencies -- including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the New York State Office of Storm Recovery, and the state Housing and Community Renewal agency -- will pick up the tab.
Hrvatin would not say how much the authority is paying for the property.
“I’m not comfortable talking about how much the property will cost the housing agency, as the contract has not been finalized,” he said.
Tenants said they were excited about the new housing complex, where most apartments will be at least 25 percent larger than the current ones.
“We were hearing about these new apartments for years,” said Luvine Martin, 72, who has lived there more than 40 years. “Especially after Sandy. So, yes, I’m looking forward to them.”
Hrvatin said another big thing for tenants is there will be 100 parking spots in the new complex, compared with 12 now.
