Inwood's Isaiah Moultrie's vision is simple: to give back to his community

The Rev. Isaiah Moultrie Sr., a retired Marine, envisioned constructing a residential building in Inwood for military veterans and first responders. His son, Isaiah, aims to make that vision a reality for his father.

The younger Moultrie, a developer, has proposed a five-story, 48-unit residential building near the Inwood Long Island Rail Road station, at the intersection of Bayview Avenue and Russell Place.

Born and raised in Inwood, Moultrie said he hoped to revitalize a community he’s always called home, and the 11.7-acre lot where his father’s church stood until it was demolished after he retired.

“This is a project that my father started,” he said. “He’s a retired Marine, and he was interested in veteran housing that caters to law enforcement and emergency workers. He wanted to give them first option, and knew a lot of them have a hard time finding housing when they came out of the military.”

Asked if the apartment complex would be limited to servicemen and women, Moultrie said he would want non-military families to live there as well.

The construction project awaits a start date, after it was approved by the Town of Hempstead Board of Appeals in 2020.

“First, Covid slowed things down, and then there was a discrepancy on the basement that we were going to put utilities in,” Moultrie explained. “The town’s building department said the basement wasn’t listed on the initial drawing.”

At a June 14 Board of Appeals hearing at the town’s Old Town Hall, the Moultrie family’s attorney, Christian Browne, discussed the basement plans for the project.

“The reason why the town didn’t entitle his building permit right away is they said there was a mistake on the paperwork,” Browne told the Herald, referring to Moultrie’s permit. He added that the purpose of the basement was originally listed. “It is the same (paperwork) that was approved. Nothing has changed from the project.”

Moultrie said the plans were written out on the paperwork.

On the opposite side of the hearing table was Albert D’Agostino, representing the Lawrence school district, who said that when the project was first discussed in 2020, the school district was strongly opposed. D’Agostino asked the board to adjourn the hearing so the district could review the project. The case was adjourned until June 28.

Browne questioned why the district would oppose a project that would bring more families to the community, but hardly a large number of children to local schools. “It’s only 48 apartments,” he said.

“At this point, we’re just doing our research,” Lawrence Board of Education President Murray Forman said.

Town code allows buildings with single-family units to be no taller than three stories. Moultrie said that County Executive Bruce Blakeman was a driving force in securing a zoning change for the project when he was the area’s town councilman.

Browne said that construction was expected to start last fall, but was halted due to the discrepancy over the basement. On Sept. 20, the Town Board approved a six-month moratorium on the construction of homes and apartments in the villages of North Lawrence and Inwood.

Browne said he proposed to the Board of Appeals that it exempt Moultrie’s project from the moratorium, and then he and his client would resolve the “error.” The board agreed, he said.

As of press time, Browne had not returned follow-up calls asking how he and Moultrie had resolved the error.

Michael Gliner, an Inwood business owner and member of the Inwood Civic Association who attended the hearing, said he supported the project.

“If you go up and down the area, that block is such an eyesore,” Gliner said. “There’s nothing going on there, and it will improve that area and bring up the value of the people who are there. Isaiah has always done right by the community. I don’t see why he would change now.”

Moultrie, a 1984 graduate of Lawrence High School who now lives in Hewlett, said he doesn’t intend to make a “quick buck” in Inwood, but rather hopes to bring a project he said would revitalize his childhood community.

“We really want to bring back something to Inwood that’s going to be good,” he said. “Something that’s going to be safe and put Inwood in a better light than it is now. It’s going to bring people to come and say, ‘Hey, I want to live here. I feel safe here.’ That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Have an opinion on the Moultrie development in Inwood? Send a letter to jbessen@liherald.com.