A New Life and Vision for the Pergament Site

A building of 50,000 square feet has sat abandoned at 2350 Jericho Turnpike for the last decade. We all know it as ‘the old Pergament building". It’s stained white walls and rubble parking lot remains an eyesore and waste of space.

An article written by an Allison Teicher in July, 2010 explains what happened. Pergament went into bankruptcy in 2001, leaving the building vacant. A realtor she interviewed, Cliff Molloy of Studley Inc., stated that an “attempt to restore the property” was made with a plan by Home Depot to build a smaller store chain called ‘The Villager". It also failed. Molloy goes on to cite the reasons the property remains vacant: high taxes and the building’s condition.

It appears that Blumenfeld Development Group currently owns or is listing the property as a rental, according to the company's site, and the Assessor’s Office shows that property is zoned for retail, mynassauproperty.com said. There does not appear to be any current plans for the building or site.

It’s time to change that. There are three things going for the site: it contains ample parking, it sits along a major thoroughfare and its building is practically derelict. So for those of you that read my first article on , here I go again…

I’m not the site owner, or a developer, but I nonetheless propose an ideal strategy for the property if either were to consider revitalization.

First, tear down the Pergament building. It’s unattractive, looks like a bunker and with two Ace Hardware’s, a Bed Bath and Beyond and PC Richard nearby there’s no need for another home improvement or big box store.

Second, redevelop the property right. The way to go for underused or vacant properties in commercial corridors such as this stretch of Jericho is in developing smaller-scaled, pedestrian-friendly mixed use structures that create vibrant places, enhance the streetscape and connect with and benefit the surrounding area. Not another "Plain Jane" shopping center, or a fortified residential development, or a closed off office building, or a community use that would be unproductive to the community itself. Not in this economy, especially.

I recently created a concept called "Rekindle New Hyde Park" showing how such a revitalized plan could work and what it would look like and wanted to share a few details and renderings of the plan along with a video presentation to show you one possibility for the site. 

The building itself: The first floor would contain a number of shops and café along its edges and a lobby for the residential and office components at the center. This would all be connected through a small retail arcade inside. The second floor would contain smaller offices of commercial services; such as insurance, medical, attorneys, financial et cetera. The third floor would be either a large office floor or a lounge/gym area for the residential component. In either case there would also be a large rooftop terrace atop the lower two floors where a green lawn, patio, pool or other function could be.

And the floors above seven in the full scale concept and three in the scaled down concept would be residential with a luxury penthouse on the top floor.

This is just one possible combination of office and residential floor space in the building.

The streetscape: The conventional sidewalks would border the property and road; however an expanded stone-floored and landscaped sidewalk would line the building, giving pedestrians over 18 feet of beautiful walkable space. There would be a circular courtyard where visitors could sit, meet and have lunch, as well as an outdoor space along the street for the café. The streetscape is also designed to complement the size and scale of the entire building and create more community space on the site.

Green: In both concepts, the slanting roof, a cosmetic feature housing the HVAC equipment, would also contain a solar array and rainwater collector. In the larger concept a small system of wind turbines could be installed in the open roof membrane structure. The streetlights all have solar collectors. The building could obtain LEED certification and be overall energy efficient.

Parking: A parking sublevel could be installed for resident and tenant use below the building. The large parking lot on the site could more than suit visitor/customer use. Another idea is to build a "pocket park" over part of the parking lot if submerged parking is utilized. And then there’s the smaller south parking lot which could also become a park.

Traffic and transportation: It’s Jericho Turnpike which is already a higher capacity road and the site is also served by Marcus Avenue’s 2x2 lanes. The N24 bus services the area via an already existing bus stop right on the corner and goes by both New Hyde Park and Mineola LIRR station and Roosevelt Field Mall.

Height: The full scale version is around 100 feet tall to highest occupied floor; the scaled down version is about 60 feet tall. A mile away sits downtown Mineola with densely packed, comparably sized buildings which are more adjacent to the surrounding suburban area with even less lanes of traffic to operate in.

Making it happen: Assuming hypothetically that a developer is proposing or picks up this idea, construction cannot start tomorrow morning. One of the problems on Long Island is a nauseating process for building anything, so I’ve condensed a freakish process into a few of the steps. The zoning would have to change to allow residential and commercial office development. Either concept would have to obtain variances. And then there’s the permit, environmental impact, public review/comment, agency and construction permit process; insert etc. etc. here.

So there you have it. I believe buildings like this need to be a huge part of the future, certainly for revitalizing and making more useful commercial strips such as Jericho Turnpike, Hempstead Turnpike and Old Country Road. There’s a whole lot more that goes into it: like resolving the extraordinarily high taxes, easing the approval/permit process and growing Nassau’s attractiveness as a business-friendly and modernized place which would create more demand: but that’s literally a saga for a whole other set of articles.

Until then, please leave your thoughts on the idea.