North Hempstead Town apartment project sold at auction for $15.1 million bid

A company tied to a Huntington developer sued by his investors for alleged fraud last year lost a four-story, unfinished apartment development to a firm linked to Long Island’s largest landlord in September, allowing the new owner to take over some of the property's tax benefits last month.

GB Family Office Holdings LLC, a company connected to Fairfield Properties co-managing partner Gary Broxmeyer, snapped up the building at 45 Lumber Rd. in the Village of Roslyn with a winning bid of $15.1 million at a September foreclosure auction of the property, owned at the time by a company tied to Huntington-based G2D Development’s Greg DeRosa. The transaction was more than double the 2021 sale price of the then-vacant land, at $6.1 million, according to property records.

The purchase means the long-stalled apartment building could finally wrap up construction, more than six years after North Hempstead first considered developing the waterfront site. It also means that its new owner will benefit from some of the tax breaks the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency (NCIDA) originally awarded to DeRosa.

Payments instead of property taxes

DeRosa scored up to $360,347 in sales and mortgage tax exemptions in 2022 and 2023 to help G2D build the 33-apartment building, which would include six affordable units, according to the NCIDA’s annual reports from both years. G2D also had secured a 22-year agreement with the IDA to make payments instead of paying property taxes, through what’s known as a payments in lieu of real property taxes (PILOT) program, according to IDA documents.

But DeRosa sold off the property before finishing the building, allowing GB Family Office Holdings to take over the PILOT benefit. The PILOT began in 2024, according to NCIDA. 

DeRosa’s attorney, Kevin James Keating, declined to comment. Fairfield’s attorney, Gary C. Hisiger, also declined to comment.

The plan to build apartments at 45 Lumber Rd. dates back to 2019, with a then-controversial bid for luxury condos.

That year, a development group that included Roslyn builder Ian Zwerdling proposed demolishing the single-story Verizon building that then stood at 45 Lumber Rd., and in its place, constructing 150-foot-tall, high-end condo building, Newsday reported. The proposed condo tower would have been the second-tallest building in the Town of North Hempstead at the time.

Residents balked at a project that tall, Newsday reported. A year later, the developers returned to the Roslyn board of trustees looking to build a more modest, 58.7-foot high, four-story apartment building, the Long Island Press reported. But as the approval process dragged on, the development group cut ties with the project in 2021, selling the land to DeRosa’s G2D Development, which planned to finally take the project over the finish line.

But those plans never came to fruition.

Troubled waterfront

With the Village of Roslyn’s blessing, G2D started building the 33-unit property, and said the completed building would include a rooftop pool and fitness center, the Long Island Business News reported in 2021. The project came with tax breaks too, a common way IDAs incentivize building on Long Island.

G2D also scored $21.5 million in a loan from ConnectOne Bank in 2022 to construct the apartment building, according to loan documents filed in Nassau County Supreme Court. By 2024, G2D had erected a four-story structure on the Lumber Road lot, according to Google Maps images of the property.

But starting in spring 2024, a handful of firms involved in the project — including a construction and concrete company — filed liens against the property for more than $3 million in bills they said G2D had failed to pay, according to copies of the liens filed in Nassau County Supreme Court.

Later that year, ConnectOne sold the loan to 1 Lumber Lender LP, an investment fund tied to Cirrus Real Estate Partners, which moved to foreclose on the loan, according to court records. As of December, the new lender said G2D owed them close to $9 million.  

A call to Cirrus Real Estate Partners was not returned.

Multiple lawsuits

At the same time as the foreclosure, DeRosa faced several lawsuits from his investors, including one on the 45 Lumber Rd. project — former Huntington school board member and New York Jets player John P. Paci III, Newsday reported. DeRosa is alleged in the lawsuit to have falsely assured Paci the Lumber Road development was on schedule.

"In multiple lawsuits against Mr. DeRosa and G2D Group, John Paci alleges that DeRosa misrepresented the status of the construction project at various developments including 45 Lumber Rd. in Roslyn, which have resulted in significant losses to investors, by way of DeRosa's misappropriation of investor and financial institution funds for a specific developments," Paul O'Brien, an attorney for Paci, told Newsday on Tuesday.

The lawsuit is ongoing, according to court records.

In March, the Suffolk County Police Department arrested and charged DeRosa for allegedly writing a check for $300,000, knowing his bank account did not have the money to cover it, Newsday reported. DeRosa pleaded not guilty to the charge in April, Newsday reported. He is scheduled to return to court Friday.

Apartment project incomplete

Amid the foreclosure, liens and lawsuits, 45 Lumber Rd. remains incomplete.

Photos taken on Nov. 6 show plywood and plastic screens covering the ground floor of the apartment complex where windows should be. The building’s bright blue exterior doesn’t yet have a finished facade.

At the Oct. 30 Nassau IDA meeting, an attorney representing GB Family Office Holdings said Broxmeyer plans to finish the project. Also at the meeting, the IDA unanimously approved a resolution allowing Broxmeyer’s company to assume the PILOT benefits.

While Hisiger, Fairfield’s attorney, declined to comment on Gary Broxmeyer’s plans, the comanaging partner at Fairfield Properties is no stranger to building on Long Island. Melville-based Fairfield — among Long Island's largest landlords — owns more than 13,000 apartments across Long Island, Newsday has reported.

Nor is Broxmeyer a stranger to a good deal. His firm, GB Family Office Holdings, bought the nearly completed building with a bid of $15.1 million, which covers fees and payments of outstanding taxes, also comes with PILOT benefits.  The vacant land alone at 45 Lumber Rd. sold for just under half what Broxmeyer paid in September.

CORRECTION: The lender that foreclosed on the loan for 45 Lumber Rd. is 1 Lumber Lender LP, and the development sold for a $15.1 million bid at auction. An earlier version of this story misidentified the lender that initiated the foreclosure and misstated the sale price.