132 senior apartments planned for Valley Stream parking lot near LIRR

A plan to build 132 senior apartments in Valley Stream on the site of a village-owned parking lot is moving forward after the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency gave preliminary approval for tax benefits for the project.

The Alder at Valley Stream will be built on about 1.5 acres on the northwest corner of West Valley Stream Boulevard and Hicks Street by developers Benjamin Companies in Garden City and BOSFA Properties in Lawrence.

The developers agreed to buy the lot, Parking Field No. 26, for $7 million. The lot, which offers non-resident parking for the nearby Long Island Rail Road station, is slated to close this fall, according to the village's website.

The project is the latest new housing proposal in Nassau County, where hundreds of new apartments have opened in the past few years with support from the Hempstead IDA, including in West Hempstead, Lynbrook, Baldwin and Hempstead.

Buildings offering affordable rents have received hundreds of applications for just a handful of available units, Newsday previously reported.

"The marketplace is calling for housing, so a great deal of what we've been doing over the last couple of years reflects the need for housing," said Fred Parola, CEO of the Hempstead IDA. "That's where the developers are going."

The five-story, market-rate apartment building will include 16 studios, 105 one-bedroom and 11 two-bedroom apartments. The site will include 112 parking spaces and a roughly 8,000-square-foot terrace for residents, according to public filings.

The developer agreed to set aside 10% of the apartments as affordable housing as part of the agreement. 

Benjamin Cos. and BOSFA declined to share future estimated rents for the remaining market-rate units with the building still three years from opening.

The proposed tax benefits include a $431,000 sales tax exemption, a $271,000 mortgage recording tax exemption and a 30-year payment in lieu of taxes agreement. Under the agreement, the developers will pay nearly $39 million over 30 years, or about $1.3 million annually on average with payments increasing over time.

The village-owned property is currently exempt from taxes, according to IDA documents.

The developers still need final approval for tax benefits from the Hempstead IDA as well as a zoning change from the village, which selected the developers to build senior housing on the site after an RFP process in 2023.

"It tells you the village was on board, recognizing you're bringing in new people to shop in the village and you've got a better use of the land in downtown Valley Stream," Parola said.

Valley Stream Mayor Edwin Fare did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

If the apartments are approved, the building would open in early 2029, said Daniel Goldstein, managing member of BOSFA Properties.

"The location was very important," Goldstein said. "It's right by the train, seniors can walk right into the park and you have the stream, and it's very close to Sunrise Highway.

The apartments will serve an aging population on Long Island in a village that offers fast train rides to Manhattan, said Ken Coyle, CEO of Benjamin Companies.

"Housing on Long Island is structurally undersupplied especially in the 55-and-older segment," he said.