Garvies Point groundbreaking in Glen Cove set for Tuesday

More than two decades after proposals were first made to revitalize Glen Cove’s waterfront, Mayor Reginald Spinello and RXR Realty CEO Scott Rechler will break ground Tuesday on the 56-acre Garvies Point project off Hempstead Harbor.

The development is slated to include 1,110 condo and rental units, parks, stores, offices, restaurants, marinas, an esplanade and other amenities.

Spinello noted the many changes to the project over the years, the national economic downturn and other factors that led some to doubt they’d see a major development built on the waterfront.

“How many times have we heard, ‘I won’t see it in my lifetime’?” he said. “Now we’re going to see it in our lifetime.”

Workers have been preparing the site for construction since September, said Frank Haftel, director of the Garvies Point project for RXR Glen Isle Partners, of which Uniondale-based RXR Realty is the majority owner.

Contractors for RXR have been assisting in continuing environmental remediation of the site, grading land, installing fencing, building temporary gravel roads for construction vehicles and other work, he said.

Excavation, foundation building, installation of underground facilities, replacement of the Glen Cove Creek bulkhead and other construction work will begin later this month, Haftel said.

Build-out is expected to take five to seven years, he said.

The Glen Cove planning board in October 2015 approved a master plan for the project. A planning board meeting and public hearing on a site plan for Phase 2 of the project is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Phase 2 is to include a five-story building with 167 condos, two parks, a dog-run area and a marina.

Two lawsuits against the project continue. In August, a Supreme Court judge in Nassau County dismissed two lawsuits that aimed to annul city planning board approval for Garvies Point and for alleged violations of environmental law. The plaintiffs — the Village of Sea Cliff in one suit, 105 local residents in the other — are appealing.