NY Secretary of State Walter Mosley tours Hempstead Village amid $10M redevelopment plan

State and local officials walked through the streets of downtown Hempstead Village on Monday like painters holding up their thumbs to take in the perspective before applying brushstrokes.

The state and village have embarked on a planning process to use a $10 million downtown revitalization initiative grant to attract development and business to the area.

New York's secretary of state, Walter Mosley, was in the village to see it for himself. 

Since the grant was awarded in March, a local planning committee has held two public meetings, and the first of two scheduled community meetings to solicit community input was held on June 11, according to the Hempstead DRI website.

The village also has issued an open request for projects with a July 24 deadline to be considered for grant funding.

At a stop in the soon-to-open Estella apartments on Main Street near the Long Island Rail Road station, Mosley said Mayor Waylyn Hobbs Jr.’s vision aligns with the Gov. Kathy Hochul's “in terms of affordability, livability, being able to thrive in the community, as opposed to trying to survive.”

Government investment to repurpose underutilized properties attracts private investment, Mosley said.

“This is really the epitome of what the downtown revitalization initiative was meant to do, to act as a force multiplier, to have the state bring their resources in,” Mosley said.

Under the planning process, a final list of proposals, called a strategic investment plan, is to be completed by November and submitted to the state. The state will announce which projects will be awarded grant funds next year.

Hobbs said community engagement is key to the revitalization effort.

“Hempstead has been stagnant for years and most of it was because we couldn't get community buy-in to development because oftentimes when people think of development, they think of displacing people and gentrifying a community,” Hobbs said.

“So having the community engagement to let them realize that 'It's not about replacing you,' it's about 'You deserve better,'” he said.

Among the projects being discussed is a parking garage adjacent the NICE bus station, said Danielle Oglesby, commissioner of the Hempstead Village Community Development Agency.

The garage would replace existing parking on surface lots at the bus station and LIRR station across the street to free up land for mixed-use housing, she said.

“The developer would definitely have to replace all the parking they take,” Oglesby said.

At the Estella apartments, a nonprofit is finalizing a long-term lease on the ground floor commercial space of more than 5,000 square feet.

“We'll have open spaces here,” Doron Spleen, chief executive of Morrison Mentors, told Mosley and Hobbs in the unfinished space. The organization focuses on STEM educational programs and plans to move into the space from its existing nearby location.

“We’ll have workshops, we'll also use this as a networking space,” Spleen said.

The organization will teach children to use technology and then provide services to local businesses. “So the students are learning how to do these technologies and then turn it around and supply it to the community,” he said.