After nearly nine years of slogging through approvals and paperwork, Sunrise Senior Living has finally closed on a 2.84-acre parcel in Oceanside, clearing the way for a three-story, roughly 77,400-square-foot assisted living and memory care complex with 84 residential units. Lee & Associates NYC brokered the $7.5 million purchase of the site at 374 Atlantic Ave, and construction is expected to start once the last pre-development details are wrapped up.
Sale details and representation
According to the New York Real Estate Journal, Lee & Associates NYC’s Kelly Koukou represented Sunrise in the acquisition, while Marlon Matza of Strategic Realty Advisors represented sellers Grossman Nurseries and Breslin Development. The parties first signed a purchase contract back in 2017, and the eventual closing wrapped up a drawn-out approval and legal process that overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic. “This transaction is a reminder that commercial real estate brokerage often requires much more than simply bringing a buyer and seller together,” Koukou said.
Approvals, PILOT and public hearings
Documents on file with the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency show the project sought economic development incentives and needed a zone change and variances before it could move forward. The IDA also commissioned an economic impact analysis that detailed projected construction and permanent jobs along with estimated payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, as outlined in Town of Hempstead IDA documents.
Project scale and local impact
The planned building clocks in at about 77,400 square feet over three stories and will provide assisted living and dedicated memory care across 84 units, with on-site parking and resident amenities. During the IDA review, local coverage pegged the project at about 150 construction jobs and roughly 55 full-time positions once the community opens, figures that were highlighted when the agency weighed inducement and tax exemptions, according to Long Island Business News.
Next steps and timeline
Lee & Associates and Sunrise say some final pre-development work still needs to be completed before site work can start, and construction is expected to follow those steps. The closing caps a sale that began with an initial contract in 2017 and, according to the broker, wound its way through a complex series of municipal approvals and legal challenges before finally settling this year, per CityBiz.
Why it matters
Developers and local officials say the Oceanside project is aimed squarely at Long Island’s growing demand for modern senior housing and at the reality that large, entitled sites in built-out communities are increasingly hard to come by. “The need for modern senior living communities continues to grow as Long Island’s population ages,” Koukou said, a point echoed in both the IDA filings and the region’s business press, as reported by the New York Real Estate Journal.
