Planned Oceanside assisted living facility awaits Nassau tax breaks to aid construction

A nonprofit developer is seeking tax breaks and tax-exempt bonds from Nassau County to aid in the construction of an 84-bed Oceanside assisted living facility.

Silver Fox Senior Living Inc. plans to use the bonds to fund the roughly $108 million project — a three-story 77,312 square-foot facility on 2.36 acres at 380 Atlantic Avenue. The site is currently vacant and borders several businesses and a residential neighborhood. Without the financial aid from Nassau, the Oceanside project is "unlikely to proceed," according to the nonprofit's application to the county Industrial Development Agency.

The development would meet a growing demand for senior healthcare and other related services on Long Island and nationwide, fueled by the aging baby boom generation.

Within a 15-minute drive of the project area in Oceanside, Sunrise Senior Living — which would manage the facility — estimates there’s "an unmet demand of more than 3,800” senior living units, said John Kilborne, a real estate professional working with Sunrise, at a recent meeting with the Nassau County Local Economic Assistance Corporation.

The structure has been designed to fit the surrounding residential character and will have 53 assisted living units and 31 memory care units, which are specialized to treat people with various forms of dementia.

The site plan was initially approved in 2022, but the developer withdrew the application due to poor market conditions, including increased costs for construction and financing, according to application records with the county.

The construction of the facility would provide more than 200 full-time jobs over the course of about 22 months, according to the nonprofit's application and the Nassau County IDA. Once built, the development would provide 50 jobs in its first year and increase that number to about 69 by its third year.

Besides tax-exempt bonds, Silver Fox is also requesting about $2.51 million in sales tax exemptions, a $1.2 million mortgage recording tax benefit and a 15-year payment-in-lieu of taxes agreement.

The Nassau County IDA granted preliminary inducement on Oct. 19, which allows further review of the requests and a public hearing, said Sheldon Shrenkel, CEO and executive director of the IDA. The Nassau IDA has not yet set a date for a public hearing nor granted final approval. 

The tax-exempt bonds, which could lower borrowing costs for the nonprofit, would be issued through the Nassau County LEAC and repaid by the applicant, Shrenkel said.

"The local market is currently underserved as demand for this type of housing continues to increase," he added, noting that in December 2024, the Nassau IDA helped a similar facility — The Bristal at Westbury, a 140-unit assisted living facility — with a payment-in-lieu of taxes agreement.

There are four other Sunrise Senior Living facilities in Nassau County, all more than 20 years old and employing mostly Nassau residents, Kilborne said at the recent LEAC meeting. In Suffolk, Sunrise has six operating facilities, with a seventh expected to break ground early next year in East Northport.

Nationally, there has been increasing demand for senior facilities as the baby boomer generation ages, said Kevin Brown, senior equity analyst at Morningstar.

Americans are older than ever, with the median age increasing from 30 to 38.9 between 1980 and 2022, according to the nonprofit Population Reference Bureau. The number of seniors 65 and older in the U.S. is expected to grow over the next few decades, with a projected 42% increase between 2022 and 2050.

Long Island is no exception. In 2023, the number of seniors had grown 24% from 2013, according to federal data.

At the same time, there has been a lull in construction over the past four years, due to high interest rates combined with a decline in the senior population during the pandemic, Brown said. The senior population started to increase again around 2022.

"Even though interest rates are super high right now, I would anticipate that supply growth will start to pick up because it’s a very hot, very strong fundamental sector," he said.

Newsday's James T. Madore contributed to this story.

By Brianne Ledda

brianne.ledda@newsday.com@brianne_ledda

Brianne Ledda covers personal finance and affordability for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.