Transformation could be coming to Inwood

Lifelong Inwood resident David Hance remembers throwing rocks at the remaining windows of the unused and rundown Rockaway Metal Products building at 175 Roger Ave. in the Five Towns community when he was a kid.

Hance, now a successful business owner and president of the Inwood Civic Association, views the site that could be transformed into a 68,000-square-foot warehouse on nearly 5 acre parcel as a promising restart for a property that was once contaminated and off the tax rolls.

“We think in the end it’s a net positive,” Hance said, representing the civic association’s board. “Anything beats a dilapidated, broken building that became a dumping ground.”

The Town of Hempstead’s Industrial Development Agency has given preliminary approval on economic incentives for the $48 million project for AIREF JFK IC LCC, an affiliate of Ares Industrial Real Estate Fund LP, a global real estate investor.

A single-family house at 41 Cerro St. will also be demolished to make way for the warehouse that could be leased to one or two tenants, and will have 14 loading docks, 68 parking stalls and one drive-in entryway. Two of the parking spaces will have charging stations for electric vehicles.

“This project, should it obtain final approval, will transform a long-blighted property into productive use, an active employment center, and return it to the tax rolls,” IDA CEO Fred Parola said in a news release. “We Welcome Ares’ interest and potential in the Town of Hempstead.”

Vacant since 1987, site was originally developed with a 155,000-square-foot one-story warehouse building built in three stages from 1954 through 1967. The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, along with the state’s Department of Health, determined that the site posed a significant threat to public health after it was discovered that Rockaway Metal Products Inc., a sheet metal fabrication factory, which occupied the site from 1971 to 1987, disposed of hazardous products on-site and arsenic, lead and cadmium were found by the federal Environmental Protection Agency in 1992.

Designated a Brownfield site, cleanup was performed by two previous LLCs under the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program with oversight by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

Nassau County’s real estate department had owned the land and building since 1995. A community eyesore, the County Legislature approved borrowing $2.1 million to raze the building in 2018. Inwood 175 LLC and AJM Capital II LLC bought the property that same year. AIREF bought the property last June.

“I listened to my constituents for what the best economic use would be to not be a burden on the taxpayer,” said County Legislator Carriè Solages, who fought to get the site cleaned up.

Though Solages won’t represent Inwood anymore because of redistricting, he said he would still advocate for a capital plan to improve Sheridan Avenue, a roadway in the immediate area that sees a heavy volume of truck traffic where they are homes and a public school.

Hance noted and so did a few neighbors on Facebook that truck traffic is an issue in the community, especially on Bayview Avenue, where most of the vehicles enter off Sheridan Avenue, and access the side streets. The immediate area is home to several businesses that have a huge amount of trucks that roll through the neighborhood daily. John F. Kennedy International Airport’s cargo terminal is less than 5 miles from Roger Avenue.

“Every project has its pros and cons, we’ll see how it goes,” Hance said.

Construction on the site is planned to get under way in March.