After more than a decade of hurry up and wait, a 246-unit, $123 million rental complex is finally set to rise in downtown Hempstead. The seven-story project at 257 Main Street will stack apartments above ground-floor retail and a multi-level parking garage, a short walk from the LIRR station. Construction is slated to kick off in July 2026, with an expected build time of about 30 months.
According to Town of Hempstead IDA documents, the agency signed off on a revised incentives package that locks in the project’s tax payments at $27.6 million over 25 years and reserves 10 percent of the apartments for lower-income households. Walker and his team argue that this kind of public support is what makes multifamily construction pencil out in this part of Long Island.
Long Island Business News reports that the plan calls for 246 rentals, roughly 6,114 square feet of ground-floor retail and a parking garage of about 109,975 square feet, all wrapped into a $123 million budget. The IDA expects the buildout to create about 100 construction jobs and five permanent positions. Local coverage notes the sponsor is aiming to break ground in July, with completion roughly two and a half years after shovels hit the dirt.
The Real Deal tracks the saga back to 2015 and reports that earlier versions were smaller, first at 156 units and later at 173 units when the IDA gave its approval in 2022. Walker eventually bought out his partner and upsized the plan. In a phone interview he cautioned that “you could theoretically get shut down” by the IDA at the last minute, a reminder that tax deals and approvals can make or break a project. The outlet also notes that a one-spot-per-unit parking requirement drove a key design shift, moving parking below the housing so the team could add more apartments above.
Walker closed on the roughly 1.7-acre property and relaunched the development under his First Street Companies, a firm he founded in 2021, according to earlier reporting by Emerge Re. That coverage credits the land acquisition and financing work with clearing the path to scale up the design and push the long-running proposal across the finish line.
Why it matters
Developers say demand is not the problem. Walker told students at Friends Academy that only about 17 percent of Long Island’s dwelling units are rentals, roughly half the national share, which helps explain investor interest in sites near transit. In a region where multifamily zoning is limited, the Hempstead deal suggests that targeted tax incentives remain the main lever for unlocking larger rental buildings.
What to watch
The big variables now are financing and the fine print of the IDA package. If tax benefits and capital stay on track, the developer expects to start construction in July 2026 and wrap up about 30 months later, according to local reporting. Long Island Business News points to parking requirements and the site’s proximity to transit as the factors that will determine whether the project delivers relatively attainable rents or mostly serves as a win for investors.
