Thursday, October 1, 2026
Following an announcement by Nassau County Legislator Debra Mulé’s office that the Freeport Armory would receive $300,000 in grant funding for renovations, Mulé met with Mayor Robert Kennedy and other village officials on the armory property last week to celebrate the grant. The money will be used to transform one of the buildings on the property into a trade school in less than a year.
Before a news conference on Aug. 5, Kennedy told the Herald that he hoped to give young people from Freeport and other areas of Long Island more access to career paths that trade schools can offer. He said that because college may not always be the best option for every student, it’s important to encourage alternative and productive routes to fulfilling professions.
“Kids that don’t want to go to college will now have a place to learn electric, plumbing, HVAC, welding, IT,” Kennedy explained. “We want to work them with the unions to get them to be aggressively taught for the specific jobs that they’re going to be looking for.”
Renovations have already begun on the 16,000-square-foot building, with the installation of air conditioning systems and new windows. Kennedy estimated that the village would have to allocate an additional $200,000 to the construction, in addition to the grant, which is part of the state Community Revitalization Program. He added that he hoped to have the construction completed in two to three months.
“What we’re doing here is we’re taking this [property] New York state kind of abandoned and turning it into something that’s really, really positive,” Village Trustee Jorge Martinez said during the news conference. “I think it’ll be great for all the residents of the village. I also want to thank our legislator,” he added, referring to Mulé. “She’s a former trustee in the Village of Freeport, so she didn’t go very far, so we can thank her for thinking of us.”
The thee-acre armory property was vacant for nearly a decade until the village was granted ownership of it by former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2020. The Cedarmore Corporation, a nonprofit that is affiliated with the Zion Cathedral Church of God in Christ, which sits on the opposite side of Lakeview Avenue from the facility, disputed the village’s claim.
Since then, village officials have overseen significant construction work on the property, and presently lease one of the buildings to two businesses, the Rising Stars Athletic Complex and the Ready Set Grow Learning Academy. Kennedy estimates that the village has spent at least $600,000 to develop the property, but the effort has been lucrative for the village, which collects about $700,000 a year in rent from its tenants.
The grant, Mulé said, will help the village make the most of what she described as the armory’s “unlimited potential.”
“I’m very pleased, both as a legislator and as a resident, to be able to provide the village with this money,” she said, “so that it will be a be a savings for the rest of the village.”
Mulé, a Democrat, also expressed frustration with County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s office, which facilitates the approval of CRP grants, noting that there has been a long delay for grants to be approved for Democratic districts and legislators, compared with their Republican counterparts. She added that she hoped the approval of the armory grant and others recently was “a sign of things to come” with less frequent delays.
The building that will be converted into a trade school has been used by the Merrick Fire Department as a firehouse since March 2025. A member of the department told the Herald that the firefighters hope to be able to move out of the armory by December or January.
Village officials are currently in discussions with several organizations about leasing the finished building and operating the trade school. Kennedy said that Nassau BOCES, the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, is one of them.
Kennedy also dismissed concerns about the potential for any security issues with the small children of Ready Set Grow Learning Academy and adult students at the trade school using the same property.
“They have plenty of security in here with the day care center,” he said. “Doors are locked, there’s security, … So I don’t foresee any problems with security.”
Village officials plan to have the trade school open in six to nine months.
