New apartments open in Hicksville in latest downtown milestone

A new apartment complex in Hicksville where tenants can walk out their door to catch a train at one of the Long Island Rail Road's busiest stations has opened to its first residents in a milestone for the area's downtown revitalization.

The Lisle, a 189-unit building, offers apartments from studios to three-bedrooms, with studio rents starting at about $3,200 a month and the most expensive three-bedrooms leasing for about $6,600.

The $130 million four-story building, at 100 Nelson Ave., replaced several aging commercial buildings and a former commuter lot. The apartments are among the first to open as part of several hundred that are planned for the area around the train station.

The Lisle includes 19 income-restricted apartments that start at about $2,200 and were awarded through a housing lottery.

The building will also have about 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, with Starbucks signed as the first tenant, said Todd Schefler, managing partner at Alpine Residential, the building's Manhattan-based developer. He hopes to sign restaurants for two more of the retail spaces.

"It used to be when you came off the train at night it was pretty desolate here," Schefler said in an interview. "Now, it's going to be filled with the retail that's here and with residents coming and going."

The project took about eight years since Alpine first found the site, including about five years to receive approvals for construction and an unusually lengthy three-year construction process, Schefler said. 

Schefler said Alpine invested about $20 million in its two levels of underground parking for the building, which is in an area where weekday spots can be hard to find. Rents include one parking space, and an additional space costs $225 a month in the garage, which has 338 spaces.

"That is the one challenge with building in very tight areas near train stations," Schefler said.

Alpine also spent millions on specialized windows and walls that significantly quiet the sounds of passing trains, he said.

He said he believes some of the larger apartments — two- and three-bedroom units range from about 1,000 to nearly 1,500 square feet — will appeal to homeowners looking to downsize. 

Amenities include an outdoor pool, a coworking space, a fitness center, a children's playroom and a resident lounge. The building charges a $75 amenity fee. The Lisle allows pets but charges an initial $600 fee and $50 a month, said Faith Moore, the regional property manager for the building at South Oxford Management.

The building will benefit from the planned $10 million Hicksville revitalization from the Town of Oyster Bay, including The Underline, an area with pop-up shops and cafes below the elevated tracks; a pedestrian pathway called Festival Plaza; and an expansion of Kennedy Park to create new green space.

Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino said the town has sought to balance approving new housing with considering the additional strain on public resources. It supported The Lisle with a $1 million downtown revitalization grant.

"We're extremely proud of this because it speaks to filling a need and it shows the rest of the state the right way to do redevelopment, and that is listening to the stakeholders in the community," Saladino said.

Alpine also received a package of tax breaks from the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency. They include a $4 million sales tax exemption and a nearly $607,000 mortgage recording tax exemption.

The developer entered a 20-year agreement with the IDA to make $23.6 million in payments in lieu of taxes.

"In New Jersey, Long Island, all the suburbs, we can't make the economics work without the tax structure," Schefler said. 

Joel Berse, past president of the Northwest Civic Association of Hicksville, said he believes tenants in the luxury apartments will support businesses around the train station.

"I couldn't believe what rents are going for, and these people obviously are professionals making a living," Berse said. "If they're going to be there, they're going to spend money in the area."

But those rents aren't attainable for all renters. Celeste Parham, a 24-year-old dietary aide, said the cost of renting on Long Island has gotten out of control and has led friends to look out of state.

She rents part of a house with two other roommates in Lynbrook, paying $844 a month.

"It should be a lot less, in my opinion," Parham said of rents at The Lisle while waiting for a train in Hicksville. "You shouldn't have to go all the way [to] upstate New York or go out of state."