Author: David Winzelberg
$49M Freeport apartment project to get IDA assist
The developer of a $49 million residential rental project in Freeport has received initial approval for economic incentives from the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency.
The plan from Lawrence-based BOSFA Properties will redevelop the decaying Moxey Rigby public housing complex into a new 200-unit apartment development on the 2.5-acre site at 80-84 Albany Ave. and 17-33 Buffalo Ave.
Built in 1958, the Moxey Rigby housing complex, named for Nassau County’s first African American elected judge, was managed by the Village of Freeport’s Housing Authority, but the property was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and left blighted and vacant. The village replaced the old buildings with a new Moxey Rigby project nearby, which opened in Dec. 2019.
The development site in Freeport. / Courtesy of BOSFA Properties
BOSFA plans to build a 165,936-square-foot apartment complex with 10 studios, 100 one-bedroom units, 70 two-bedroom units, and 20 three-bedroom units. The project, called The Gardens at Buffalo, has already received zoning approvals, according to an IDA statement.
Ten percent of the apartments will be offered as workforce housing and priced at reduced rents.
BOSFA, which stands for Builders of Sustainable Family Apartments, is owned and operated by the father-and-son team of Daniel and Aron Goldstein. The company has acquired more than 50 properties since the firm began. BOSFA’s current real estate assets include the 124-unit Rivoli House and 60-unit Hilton Gardens in Hempstead, the 36-unit Pearsall Gardens in Freeport, the 176-unit Bayview Estates in Inwood, and several other mixed-use and multifamily properties.
BOSFA plans to build a 165,936-square-foot apartment complex with 10 studios, 100 one-bedroom units, 70 two-bedroom units, and 20 three-bedroom units. The project, called The Gardens at Buffalo, has already received zoning approvals, according to an IDA statement.
Ten percent of the apartments will be offered as workforce housing and priced at reduced rents.
BOSFA, which stands for Builders of Sustainable Family Apartments, is owned and operated by the father-and-son team of Daniel and Aron Goldstein. The company has acquired more than 50 properties since the firm began. BOSFA’s current real estate assets include the 124-unit Rivoli House and 60-unit Hilton Gardens in Hempstead, the 36-unit Pearsall Gardens in Freeport, the 176-unit Bayview Estates in Inwood, and several other mixed-use and multifamily properties.
Daniel Goldstein and Aron Goldstein / Courtesy of BOSFA Properties
Daniel Goldstein started his career as an electrician in Israel and later managed his family’s real estate portfolio there before moving to the U.S. in 1999. He founded an electrical contracting firm here before turning his attention back to real estate, working on rehabbing and repositioning a portfolio of several thousand apartments.
As a teenager, Aron Goldstein worked with his dad in the electrical contracting firm, later joining a real estate company that owned more than 3,000 apartments before founding BOSFA Properties with his father.
The Freeport development will return the public housing property to the village’s tax rolls.
“It will be a tremendous asset in the Village of Freeport,” Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy, who also represents Freeport on the town IDA, said in the statement. “This project will be a great success.”
The IDA benefits for the new BOSFA project are subject to further study, a public hearing, and a final authorizing resolution. Hempstead IDA CEO Fred Parola said he supports the plan.
“This is a project with the potential to further energize the Village of Freeport and provide a tremendous positive boost to the community by ridding it of a blighted structure and providing much-needed housing,” Parola said.