Two Nassau County villages have been awarded millions of dollars of additional funding for development projects by the state.
Hempstead Village received $10 million from the state’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative and Farmingdale received $4.5 million as the Long Island winner of the third round of NY Forward grants, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office Friday.
The Village of Hempstead will use the money to transform Main Street into a thriving hub of activity, community and commerce. Previous Long Island communities to have earned DRI grants include Kings Park, Westbury, Hicksville, Central Islip, Baldwin, Amityville, Riverhead and Huntington Station.
“Hempstead is a proud, hardworking community, and this $10 million investment will go a long way in making our downtown a place where families, businesses, and visitors can thrive,” Hempstead Mayor Waylyn Hobbs said.
Farmingdale Village Mayor Ralph Ekstrand said the village will use its state funding for a performing arts center. Farmingdale has been voted the Best Downtown on Long Island by FourLeaf Federal Credit Union each of the past six years and 10 of the past 11 years. Long Beach and Mineola were the two previous Nassau County recipients of funding from the NY Forward program.
“In the village, we all work as a team and there are also many music fests, art shows and basically culture everywhere, but the one desire was always for a cultural arts center, so this is the icing on the cake,” Ekstrand said about the grant.
Both Farmingdale and Hempstead are eligible to receive the funding from the state as they are listed as certified pro-housing communities, an innovative policy created to recognize and reward municipalities actively working to unlock their housing potential. Farmingdale and Hempstead are two of nine pro-housing communities in Nassau County along with Freeport Village, Glen Cove City, Long Beach City, Mineola Village, Port Washington North Village, Valley Stream Village and Westbury Village.
According to the governor’s office, the two communities will begin developing a Strategic Investment Plan which will guide the grant money towards specific projects to revitalize their downtowns.
“Long Island’s downtowns are more than hubs for business, they’re the infrastructure that inspires people to build a better world around them,” Hochul said Friday.
