New Hyde Park is set to get some new apartments.
The board of trustees approved resident Reid Sakowich’s application to convert the currently empty building at 36 Lakeville Road into seven, two-bedroom apartments Thursday night.
Sakowich said there would be no new construction, just renovation and remodelling of the existing structure, which he has owned for the past two years, to create apartment buildings. He said when he purchased the building, it was in extremely poor condition and this work will benefit the village by creating a nicer building.
“It’s an investment back into the community that we all live in,” Sakowich said. “We did a lot of work to support and bring the building back to its structural [integrity]. We had to replace the foundation under the building. It was crumbling.”
He anticipated the work being completed and units being up for rent sometime in early 2026, likely January.
Sakowich said the apartments would be rented at $3,200-$3,400 and would be between 650-700 square feet. He plans to construct a small courtyard in the back of the building and attempt to enter into an agreement with the village to purchase municipal parking spots in the nearby lot so tenants can park there.
Mayor Christopher Devane said he thought the apartments would be a positive addition to the village, as there is a need for more housing. He also said he believed it would help the area’s small mom-and-pop shops stay afloat by increasing foot traffic in the nearby business corridor.
“There’s an acute need for apartments in New Hyde Park,” Devane said. “There’s an acute need for foot traffic in New Hyde Park…I don’t believe Mr. Sakowich is trying to add a tremendous amount of people by doing this, but the byproduct that I see is foot traffic that is going to help our business corridor on Jericho Turnpike.”
Sakowich, who owns the property at 608610 Jericho Turnpike and recently created a similar apartment building there, anticipates this Lakeville Road property to be comparable. He said many of the tenants in the Jericho building are nurses and doctors who are working at or completing their residencies at local hospitals, and he expects the tenants of these new apartments to be similar.
He emphasized his commitment to renovating the building well and maintaining the apartments respectfully, as he and his family are also residents of the village, and said he cared about what happened in it.
“My entire family lives here,” Sakowich said. “I’m not going to get my car and leave this community…my brothers all live on First Avenue and Sixth Avenue. My mom is 97…she lives on South Sixth Street. We’re not going anywhere. This is our community, and we feel this is an investment that would only make the community a better place for everybody.”
Sakowich will reappear before the board in the coming months regarding the adjacent 50 Lakeville Road property, which he also owns. He plans to fill that building with a commercial or medical tenant.
