Who’s moving in?

The old picker Drugs sign still hangs over the rundown doorway — even though the pharmacy moved further north on Atlantic Avenue in 2001.

Herald file photo

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Real Estate Department is in discussions with a prospective tenant to lease two vacant, dilapidated stores under the Atlantic Avenue Long Island Rail Road trestle, marking another step in the Lynbrook village board’s push to rent the aging properties.

The agreement is still being negotiated, and there is no specific date for a lease, according to Salvatore Arena, an MTA spokesman. “It’s ongoing, but we would like to have it rented out as soon as possible,” Arena said.

The hope is for a lease agreement to be signed as early as this month for 45 and 48 Atlantic Ave., said Deputy Mayor Alan Beach, who has been the liaison between the village and the MTA. “We are real close, and moving along with it,” said Beach, who did not identify the potential tenant. “Someone is interested in the properties and rehabbing both sides of the street.”

The storefronts have sat empty in the busiest area of the village’s downtown business district for several years. They were once leased by Harry Levitt and Kanti Vadsola, proprietors of Mur-Lee’s Men and Boys Designer Clothing and Sportswear and Picker Pharmacy, which moved farther down the street in 2001. The buildings have since fallen into disrepair, to the dismay of residents.
“The west side buildings on Atlantic Avenue are unusable, and in worse shape than the east,” said village attorney Peter Ledwith. Village officials also discovered that the former Picker Pharmacy roof had sprung leaks in late 2009.

The village board has met with MTA officials several times, seeking a plan to rent and renovate the properties. In 2009, village officials agreed to lease the property from the MTA in order to sublet it to various tenants. However, the MTA later issued a request for proposals to find potential tenants to do renovations last summer, and the agreement was dissolved. The village remained involved in the leasing process, helping to distribute the RFP, to which the potential tenant responded.