Construction Begins at Garvies Point, Local Leaders Celebrate

The $1 billion Garvies Point Waterfront Redevelopment, which is expected to be one of the largest developments ever on Long Island, is officially underway after the sites’s real estate developer and the City of Glen Cove broke ground Tuesday morning.

Glen Cove Mayor Reggie Spinello, local leaders and executives from RXR Realty were at Garvies Point to kick off the first phase of the construction process with a ceremonious shovel into the ground. The Garvies Point sale was finalized on Nov. 22.

Phase one, which is expected to be completed in 2018, includes 28 acres of public open space, waterfront parks and esplanades, restored wetlands, an educational ecology pier and other amenities. The entire construction process is expected to take 5 to 7 years.

“When all is said and done, this transformative $1 billion project will restore 56 acres of Glen Cove’s waterfront to productive use,” Frank Haftel, First Vice President of RXR Realty, said at the groundbreaking ceremony.

The Garvies Point site has provided zero dollars in tax revenue for the past 30 years.

Renderings and ariel views of the Garvies Point Development are available on Glen Cove Patch's Facebook page:

Spinello says the ceremonial shoveling is the result of all the hard work over the years, adding that RXR Realty is “investing in our City’s future.”

Lifelong Glen Cove resident Scott Rechler, chairman and CEO of RXR Realty, took on the project 10 years ago and is finally seeing a light at the end of a tunnel. “We had to deal with a couple of frivolous lawsuits along the way, but we got through it and we made it a reality to be here today,” he said.

Residents have been deprived of one of the community’s most cherished assets, the waterfront, Rechler said. The project, once completed, will create a "vibrant, downtown waterfront" that mixes "the best of suburban living and urban lifestyle,” he said.

At Garvies Point, people will be able to walk to a high-speed ferry and be in New York City within 40 mins or walk downtown to Glen Cove for entertainment restaurants or shopping.

“It’s going to be an unbelievable asset for the City of Glen Cove to enjoy the parks and have a waterfront experience that they deserve,” he said.

The project, a long time in the making, has been revised over the years to accommodate residents and their concerns.

Haftel says RXR, over the past year and a half, has accommodated concerned residents by working to reduce the buildable area by 20 percent, eliminate two buildings from the master plan, add three acres of open space and raise a $125 million bond issuance that is solely supported by tax income from the Garvies Point Project.

“[RXR] made significant modifications to their vision without compromising the integrity of their project for the benefit of the Glen Cove community,” Haftel says.

The night before the City broke ground on the Garvies Point project, the Glen Cove Planning Board invited the public to a hearing where residents could express their comments, concerns and opinions on the project.

Many residents are publicly against the construction of Garvies Point. Members of the community created groups, such as “Save the Glen Cove Waterfront” and "Committee For A Sustainable Waterfront" on Facebook to combat the construction plans.

Many residents believe the project is not the right fit for the location, apartments will likely not be affordable and the development will be built on polluted land.

The Committee For A Sustainable Waterfront, a non-profit organization against the development of Garvies Point, explains on its website how the development will negatively impact Glen Cove and the surrounding communities:

• The area will face about 10 years of construction.
• Major roads will be impacted, causing congestion during construction and after when additional residents move into the development.
• The complex will impact water views from Tappan Beach, Gravies’ Point, Sea Cliff, Port Washington and Sands Point.
• Sites that will be part of the development have been classified as “Red Flag Areas” by the EPA and DEC. They have been contaminated by “radioactive slag” and volatile organic compounds which the committee says have not been removed.

In 2015, the Village of Sea Cliff hit the City of Glen Cove with two lawsuits to prevent the waterfront project.

Philip Pidot told Patch in 2015 the development is the only way the City comes close to “plugging the multi-million-dollar hole in its 2016 budget.”

Despite the many efforts, the project has broken ground.

Garvies Point Development looks to transform nearly 60 acres of Glen Cove’s waterfront into:

• 1,110 residential apartments and condominiums
• 75,000 square-feet of shops and restaurants
• Approximately 28 acres of public open space and amenities, including children’s playgrounds, bike paths, parks, gazebos, esplanades, marinas, an amphitheater and a dog park.
• Restored wetlands
• On-site parking

RXR says Garvies Point is expected to:

• Generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity, including approximately $622 million in new revenues to the City, School District, Library District and Nassau County.
• Bring an annual economic benefit of $50 million to the City
• Allow longtime Glen Cove residents to take advantage of the waterfront
• Attract new residents, who are expected to spend $24 million per year in the community
• Create more than 460 direct and indirect jobs per year during the construction period and more than 540 permanent jobs.
• The 460 jobs are expected to create $36 million in earnings annually and the permanent jobs and tenants are expected to create about $22 million earnings each year, the City says.

Patch photos