While they take a toll on downtown businesses, malls and online shopping can’t provide the experience offered by downtown shopping districts such as those in the villages of Great Neck and Great Neck Plaza, North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth said Thursday
“Downtowns have this unexplained energy that make people actually want to come there,” Bosworth said to members of the Great Neck Chamber of Commerce at a luncheon at the Inn of Great Neck. “Downtowns are the best indicator of a village climate – they’re the lifeblood of the local economy.”
But Great Neck Plaza’s 6.5 percent storefront vacancy rate – which officials said is lower than most villages across Long Island – is still a glaring issue within the community, said Hooshang Nematzadeh, Great Neck Chamber of Commerce president and Village of Kings Point trustee.
“We have brick and mortar stores competing with Internet sales…it’s an unfair competition,” Nematzadeh said.
Changing demographics and high taxes were some of the main causes of the vacancies, he said.
In Great Neck, Nematzadeh said, rent is about $20 to $22 per square foot with $9 of that being paid in property taxes.
Nematzadeh, who is president of Nemat Homes Inc. and is currently seeking to build in mixed-used development in the Village of Great Neck Plaza, said the high property taxes impact real estates values and make it more difficult to attract and keep new businesses.
He acknowledged though that the Plaza’s vacancy rate would be significantly better if the three vacant storefronts in the building he is seeking to build at 5-9 Grace Ave. in the Plaza were not counted.
The building was the first to be approved under the village’s Business “B” District zoning law, which allows for residential units to be built on top of storefronts or offices. The new zoning is intended to increase business in the Plaza by increasing the number of residents who live there.
Bosworth said that even though town taxes represents a relatively small percentage of local property taxes the Town Council did its part by keeping down taxes in the budget it passed in November. The budget calls for households located within a village to see their taxes increase by about 1.03 percent, while residents living in unincorporated areas would see an increase by an average of 1.45 percent.
Bosworth said downtown business areas are vital to the character of the villages in which they are located, providing jobs and helping keep money within local villages.
But because all downtowns are different across Long Island, she said, there is no single solution to filling empty storefronts.
Bosworth hailed the opening of LaunchPad, a business that allows start-up companies to rent space in an office building, at 3 Grace Ave next year as a step in the right direction toward revitalizing downtown Great Neck. LaunchPad also has sites in Hicksville, Huntington, Mineola and Stony Brook University.
“It will improve the odds of start-up success in Great Neck and create 50 new jobs by 2016,” Bosworth said. “It’s exciting to see Great Neck is related to other start-up hotspots.”
The company, led by co-founder Andrew Hazen, will occupy parts of the first floor of 3 Grace Ave., as well as the entire basement of the building.
Bosworth also touted the collaboration between the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, Great Neck Plaza and the town that led to LaunchPad coming to Great Neck.
