Major upgrades coming to East Meadow Plaza

Real estate developer Regency Centers revealed renovation plans for East Meadow Plaza to residents at the Council of East Meadow Community Organizations meeting at the East Meadow Public Library on Sept 19.

The redevelopment project will join properties south of Hempstead Turnpike including East Meadow Plaza and the Stew Leonard’s Plaza. Everything in the plot will undergo major changes to improve appearance, cleanliness and safety, while attracting new businesses.

“This is important to the East Meadow population because it’s going to offer a new set of shopping opportunities for our community, and at the same time, redesign the entire shopping center to make it more amenable, and more beautiful, and more attractive,” said CEMCO President Joseph Parisi.

The renovated center will feature a Lidl, Burger City, UPS and many other stores that have not been revealed.

“This is going to represent a significant upgrade to the center,” Zoning Counsel William Bonesso said. “It’s going to be much more attractive, both inside the center and outside on the peripheries. It’s going to operate very, very well, and you’re going to have a true corporate neighbor who’s going to be somebody who works well with the community.”

Bonesso, a partner of the Forchelli, Deegan and Terrana law firm, specializes in preparing and presenting land use plans. 

The safety improvements at the plaza will feature repairs to the sidewalks, rebuilt fencing, improving sight lines when leaving the center onto a main road, and changing the circulation of traffic in the parking lot throughout the center to reduce speeding.

To improve the appearance of the area, the new buildings will be made of long-lasting materials, add sunshades and significantly increase the greenery.

The current number of shrubs is around 220, according to data from Bohler Engineering. The proposed renovation will increase that number to almost 650.

“We are going to add vegetation where, presently, there is absolutely no vegetation,” Bonesso said. “There’s going to be trees planted on all elements.”

Project Manager Mike Biancaniello represented Bohler Engineering at the meeting. 

“We’re significantly increasing the amount of landscaping,” Biancaniello said. “We’ve made the site function a little more safer with more traffic control elements throughout.”

At the meeting, the development team presented rendered graphics of what the final product is intended to look like, featuring a birds-eye view of new buildings and parking zones, as well as street perspective of the buildings’ new facades.

“The current state of the site is kind of dilapidated, old, and definitely in need of a facelift,” Biancaniello said.

The team has begun to renovate storefront facades throughout the shopping center.

“There’s been a lot of work going on here already,” Regency Centers Manager Michael Perkowski said. “We really want to freshen the center up, bring it back up to current standards, and bring in a lot of new high end materials.”

The rest of redevelopment work is expected to begin in the summer of 2025 and finish around the end of the year, said Perkowski.

The proposal includes five large blocks of single-story buildings that have an area over 50,000 square feet, a five-story building, a restaurant with outdoor seating, and a joined bank and medical office. 

Community members in attendance raised awareness of difficulties associated with the area, such as parking overflow from other nearby businesses, spaces used as unofficial overnight truck stops, discarded broken glass and car parts, and parking lots used for reckless driving.

“This development also solves another long-standing problem that we’ve been dealing with,” Parisi said. “Remember, the guys discussed that it’s going to be a tree planting that’s going to completely eliminate the congregation of the cars coming in the evening and then doing their spins. That has been a problem for us as well. So, that problem gets solved.”

The redevelopment team cited the plot’s dubious condition as a contributing factor for large-scale renovation, providing an opportunity to install features required by construction code, such as traffic control islands.

“We certainly want just to have the property function in a safe and attractive manner,” Bonesso said.