Mixed-Use Proposal Includes Affordable Housing

The three-story mixed use building with 20 apartments requires a zone change and includes an affordable component and parking deck.

By Jano Tantongco

jtantongco@longislandergroup.com

A proposal for a three-story mixed-used building with 20 apartments is one of the first to abide by the town’s new affordable housing law.

The 431 New York Ave. site, former home of Sobel Vacuum Cleaner Corporation, is owned by Peter Pastorelli, also the owner of Value Drugs, and the developer behind the Icehouse Apartments.

Pastorelli needs a zone change from a R-5 Residence District to C-6 General Business District to make way for his proposed, nearly 30,000 square foot building.

Split between the three floors would be 10,400 square feet for retail on the ground level, and 9,525 square feet with 10 apartments on both of the upper floors.

Town code requires Pastorelli provide 82 parking spaces on site, and he plans to meet that requirement. His plans show that 82 parking space will be spread across a ground-level parking lot and a parking deck on the second floor.

Huntington-based attorney Jim Margolin is representing Pastorelli.

Margolin said the apartments would be primarily one- and two-bedroom units, with an “affordable component.” He said the design will keep with the “historical motif” of the town. But he also noted that the project is in its preliminary stages.

According to the new affordable housing law, one in five units must be designated as “affordable,” which is defined by United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rates. Those rates would be 80 percent of the “fair market rent” for the Suffolk and Nassau region.

Fair market rent is calculated by HUD as the estimated gross rent a renter would reasonably pay.

Joan Cergol, executive director of the town’s Economic Development Corporation, said the rates for affordable one bedrooms are $1,226, 80 percent of the fair market rent of $1,533. Two bedrooms would be $1,502, down from $1,878.