Recurrent delays due primarily to issues about steel quality are costing the Hillside Islamic Center serious money, with costs of erecting the new two-story center in North New Hyde Park now estimated at $2 million, up from the $1.4 million originally anticipated for the project.
Construction has been suspended on the work site of the center at 300 Hillside Ave. since early October 2014, while a new contractor, Long Island City-based United Restorations, has been replacing and adding steel anchor bolts for the I-beams in place on the controversial mosque.
“The delay is costing us more money than the work,” said Abdul Aziz Bhuiyan, president of the Hillside Islamic Center, in an interview last week.
Bhuiyan said remedial work on the new Islamic Center is now nearly complete and increased the cost of the project by 10 percent over group’s the original estimate, contributing to a likely $2 million price tag. A $4,000-per-month lease on a temporary site for the center nearby in Queens continues to run while building of the new center is held up.
“The remedial work is very tedious work and we have to make sure everything is being done properly,” he said. “It’s a good thing for us as an owner, so we’ll have a place that’s
flawless. God has a way of perfecting his places of worship. It is costing us a lot of money.”
Bhuiyan is hopeful that construction will restart in mid-March, after representatives of the Hillside Islamic Center sort out issues that prompted the Town of North Hempstead to suspend work on the new mosque last fall.
John Niewender, town building commissioner, said a mid-March meeting is slated to review the remedial work done on the site and determine what the next steps will be.
“We’re just as interested in moving this forward as they are,” Niewender said last week. “In this situation, there’s so many changes that needed to be made.”
Niewender said the town will retain Cashin Associates to monitor the project starting early next month. Town engineers and Cashin representatives will meet with United Restorations and Mineola-based Future Tech Consultants, Inc., retained to inspect the corrective work on the site.
As progress on correcting construction deficiencies on the site dragged on over the past several months, Niewender said a state inspector panned the results at one point. The work wasn’t matching design plans to fix the problems.
“Now we’re just talking about results on concrete testing and bolt strength. The big thing is we need to know the bolting of the steel is according to design,” said Niewender.
Quality of the concrete is a concern, Niewender said, and results of concrete core tests will be a subject at the March meeting.
Concerns about the Islamic Center construction were sparked last fall by a letter sent by New Hyde Park’s Park Civic Association leader Jim McHugh to the town building department last fall about the anchor bolts on the site.
Construction of the 9,100-square foot structure began in September 2013 after the Islamic Center acquired four adjacent houses adjacent to the property.
Expansion of the Islamic Center from a one-story building to a two-story structure that will feature four 40-foot decorative minarets has caused concerns among residents in the residential neighborhood the center abuts and civic association leaders in the community.
Plans to enlarge the Islamic center were rejected by the Town of North Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals two years ago after New Hyde Park residents expressed sharp opposition at a public hearing to the center’s plans to purchase adjacent residential properties to expand the center’s parking lot.
The project later moved ahead under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which was enacted in 2000 and relaxed zoning restrictions on religious institutions located in residential neighborhoods. The law allowed Hillside Islamic Center, which now owns the properties adjacent to it, to move head with the project with approval
only from the town building department.
Along with the financial drain, delays in the project—now a year behind on its construction timetable—have had a dampening effect on financial support for the project. “The enthusiasm is gone a little,” Bhuiyan said.
Bhuyian has said the center needs to expand because its congregation is growing. Plans also call for children’s religious classes and adult language classes at the center.
