89-year-old Cedarhurst building sold

97 Cedarhurst Ave. now Fairfield Gables at Cedarhurst Village

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On the southwest corner of the intersection of Cedarhurst and Central avenues in Cedarhurst stands an 89-year-old building at 97 Cedarhurst Ave. The mixed-use building includes retail stores, office space and 57 rental apartments.

Longtime owner, Richard Schlesinger of Freeport-based Ceebraid Signal Corp., sold the 50,000-square-foot property, four-story Tudor-style building to Melville-based Fairfield Properties for $16 million. Schlesinger was represented by Aaron Jungreis of New York City-based Rosewood Realty Group.

The leaders of Fairfield, Gary Broxmeyer and his partner, nephew Michael Broxmeyer, said they plan to invest approximately $4 million into the building, and rebrand it as the Fairfield Gables at Cedarhurst Village.

“Were looking to update both the façade and upper floor apartments,” said Gary Broxmeyer. “It’s rare that something like this becomes available and it really just needs a good refresh.”

Building Superintendent, Dave Welke, has been working at 97 Cedarhurst Ave. for more than five years. He said that under Schlesinger’s management, the building was maintained and managed well, but he looks forward to the expected upcoming changes.

“Fairfield owns over 100 locations throughout Suffolk and Nassau counties,” Welke said. “The whole building is getting revamped; all new open apartments are getting redone and the new owners have just been a bit more on top of their game and more professional about it.”

So far, the building has been cleaned and made more “up to date”, according to Welke, yet no significant changes made yet because the acquisition was just over a month ago. Long-time business owner Joan Pizzati, of Bruno Fine Optics, notes that her business has not been involved in any renovations yet, but is hoping for improvements.

“Its nice to see someone fixing up and cleaning,” said Pizzati, who has owned Bruno Fine Optics for 24 years. “After all these years, somebody is finally doing something so terrific with all the fixtures and granite being put into the building, and it feels nice.”

Fairfield’s goal is to create “Manhattan-quality” apartments out of the one-, two- and three-bedroom residences, according to Broxmeyer. Apartment rents are currently between $1,925 and $2,500 per month. The building also contains nine retail stores and three offices on the ground floor.

“We happen to like the Five Towns area because of the history and convenience,” said Broxmeyer. “With the ability to walk to shopping and the railroad, you can get much higher rents, but it’s still a great value compared to living in New York City.

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