Plans change for proposed apartments

The Valley Stream board of trustees received revised plans for the proposed Promenade building, at 49 N. Central Ave., on Dec. 7. The plans were updated after the developer purchased an adjacent property.

The developer, KAY Development Group of Manhattan, bought the parcel at the corner of North Central Avenue and a service road that leads to the rear of King Kullen. Cheech Performance, a Volkswagon auto parts store, currently occupies the site. The developer had originally purchased the L-shaped lot that wrapped around the store, but the seller retained the parcel with the store.

The Promenade is a proposed five-story apartment building that would feature 36 two-bedroom rental units of between 900 and 1,000 square feet, with amenities including balconies with plantings, a lounge, gym and laundry room on each floor and a 5,000-square-foot roof garden, with retail space occupying the ground floor, according to the original plans.

The developer’s acquisition of the corner parcel could free up space for the building’s planned 20 parking spaces. The underground parking that was originally proposed had to be scrapped, according to board assistant Vinny Ang. “The water table is higher than anticipated, so they can’t excavate to put a below-grade level,” he said. “So what they’ve done is reconfigured the building. The building remains the same height but they reduced some of the retail area, and they no longer have a driveway cut on Central Avenue.”

Ang said that the retail space would face Central Avenue rather than the service road, as it did in the original proposal.

Nassau County approved the current proposal on Sept. 14 after asking the developer to make changes, including moving driveway access off of Central Avenue, according to Buildings Superintendent Tom McAleer.

The board tabled the revised proposal until it could be reviewed, after which the board would vote to approve or reject the changes. If approved, the project would go before the village’s Board of Zoning Appeals.