Beechwood Organization is planning to turn the shuttered TGI Friday's at 829 Merrick Avenue in Westbury into a 90-unit condominium-hotel, a roughly 160,000-square-foot project that would blend full-time residents with hotel-style guests. The restaurant, once a fixture along the busy Long Island corridor, closed in 2024, and Beechwood's plans call for a mix of one-bedroom and three-bedroom units.
According to The Real Deal, the condo-hotel would offer amenities including a card room, a club room, concierge services, a gym, a swimming pool and a library. Condo owners would not be obligated to rent out their homes — the outlet reports that owners may simply choose not to — but for those who do, Beechwood would handle rental logistics and manage upkeep on units left vacant while their owners are away.
Beechwood founder Michael Dubb has said the project is aimed at empty nesters who no longer need or want a full single-family home and who are more mobile than previous generations, with Dubb expecting most buyers to be baby boomers, the outlet reported. Dubb has not revealed the development's total cost or its planned unit prices, per the same report.
Town of Hempstead Still Weighing the Rezoning Request
The Town of Hempstead has not yet decided whether to approve the project, though Beechwood has already submitted building plans for review. The Town Board adopted Resolution 718-2026 on July 7, setting a public hearing for Tuesday on rezoning 829 Merrick Avenue to a Planned Unit Development District and amending Article XXXV of the Building Zone Ordinance to define and regulate Condominium Hotel, or Condotel, uses, according to Town of Hempstead records. That hearing has since been adjourned to September 9, and the proposed amendment would also impose four-story height limits and other operating guidelines specific to condotels.
A Corridor Beechwood Has Reshaped for Nearly a Decade
The condo-hotel model is designed to tap into a broader demographic trend: affluent baby boomers and empty nesters across Long Island who want multi-state mobility without maintaining an empty single-family home through the winter months, according to Newsday. The Westbury site sits directly opposite Nassau County's 930-acre Eisenhower Park, which Dubb has identified as a key aesthetic asset for reorienting new development along the street. Beechwood's push along Merrick Avenue predates the TGI Friday's deal by years — the developer paid $16 million in 2017 for 695 Merrick Avenue to build The Selby, and $4 million in 2021 for 725 Merrick Avenue, a former Houlihan's it renovated and now leases to The Farm Italy Restaurant.
The Selby, completed by Beechwood in 2022, includes 210 apartments and 27 hotel rooms and cost $125 million to build, per the same report. Beechwood's nearby Vanderbilt development on Corporate Drive, an $85 million, six-story building with 195 units split between 178 rental apartments and 17 extended-stay hotel suites, opened in 2018, according to New York Real Estate Journal.
TGI Fridays' Exit Fit a Larger Corporate Retreat
The Westbury restaurant's exit was part of a broader corporate pullback. TGI Fridays closed dozens of company-owned restaurants nationwide before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2024, citing shifting consumer dining habits and lingering pandemic-era financial pressure, per Newsday. The Westbury location itself shut down in October 2024, ahead of the corporate bankruptcy filing.
Beechwood picked up the vacant property from Matgart Merrick Avenue Associates, LLC, an affiliate of Mattone Investors, for more than $12.75 million in May 2025, according to Mattone Investors. The deal covered a 10,064-square-foot building on three acres that had sat empty since the restaurant's closure.
Beechwood's Broader Long Island Development Record
Founded in 1985 by Dubb, The Beechwood Organization has built more than 10,000 homes across 80 communities in New York and North Carolina, making it Long Island's largest residential homebuilder. The firm has redeveloped major Westbury parcels before, including Meadowbrook Pointe Athletic Club & Spa, a $400 million, 720-unit active-adult gated condominium community on 51 acres built on the former site of Roosevelt Raceway, according to Saunders & Associates.
Other Beechwood Projects Offer a Preview
The Real Deal compared the Westbury plan to Beechwood's Adelphi Hotel and Residences in Saratoga Springs, which was completed in 2025, sold out its 79 units and has drawn comparisons to Montauk Manor in the Hamptons. The developer is separately pursuing Country Pointe Estates at Kings Park, a $220 million project that would include single-family homes, townhomes and villas; Beechwood has proposed 288 units there, down from an earlier plan for 391 units, with 29 units set aside for affordable housing.
Fair Housing Lawsuit Still Pending in Federal Court
Beechwood's expansion has not been without legal scrutiny. In February 2024, the Fair Housing Justice Center filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Beechwood Organization and its affiliates designed and constructed two of its Westbury developments, The Selby and The Vanderbilt, in violation of Fair Housing Act accessibility requirements. The case, which challenges physical barrier features at both properties, remains pending in U.S. District Court.
