Nassau Town Wins $10 Million For Downtown Revitalization

Today, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that Baldwin was the Long Island winner of the fourth round of the state's Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI), and would receive $10 million for economic development.

Westbury, Hicksville and Central Islip were the previous Long Island winners of DRI funding from the state. The project will be overseen by the Town of Hempstead, of which Baldwin is a hamlet.

"With this competition we are challenging local governments to come up with a comprehensive plan to revitalize their downtowns, and Baldwin did exactly that," Cuomo said. "This plan builds on Baldwin's existing assets including the LIRR and focuses on transit-orientated development to drive economic growth in the region. It is not only ambitious and innovative — it is actually going to happen. And when you put boldness together with feasibility, that is magic."

The DRI plan focuses on revitalizing Grand Avenue, which is the heart of Baldwin. It is close to the LIRR station and has a cluster of retail and commercial buildings. The Town of Hempstead has already started work to try to revitalize Baldwin with new zoning plans and design guidelines geared toward rebuilding the area. The award will help forward the plan for a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use downtown area centered around the LIRR station.

"The Grand Avenue corridor has suffered from 17 years of repeated unsuccessful urban renewal planning," said Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen. "Under my administration, we changed the approach and broke the cycle of failure by undertaking a transit-oriented rezone of the corridor. This rezoning will allow the uses and bring the density that will incentivize private development. We will use these funds to further enhance our efforts under the rezoning through streetscape improvements, green infrastructure, traffic calming and investments into mixed-use developments that will bring housing, office, and retail options to our residents."

To get the ball rolling, a local planning committee will be created and made up of local government officials, community leaders and other stakeholders to create a Strategic Investment Plan. It will be funded by up to $300,000 from the grant.

The Strategic Investment Plan for Baldwin will examine local assets and opportunities and identify economic development, transportation, housing and community projects that align with the community's vision for downtown revitalization. The plan will guide how the DRI money is spent.

"This money will enable Baldwin's downtown to finally live up to its potential — and boost our local economy by attracting new families, tourists and businesses," said Nassau County Executive Laura Curran. "This is part of the ongoing revitalization of our downtowns that will help keep our young people and grow the tax base — and make Nassau an even better place to live, work and play."