The abandoned Bombay Palace, located at 380 Northern Blvd. in Great Neck, was torn down on Wednesday, June 5, after being vacant for approximately 25 years.
The building, which had fallen into disrepair due to years of neglect, was bulldozed to make way for a new office development.
(Photo from Destination: Great Neck)
Global Environmental Inc. took down the abandoned building and is currently cleaning up the debris and getting the plot ready for construction.
Doris Smith, president of Global Environmental and contractor for the demolition, worked with her crew to demolish the building.
“It’s all down. Now, we are just cleaning it up. We’ve got bricks coming out, and we got about 12 containers out of here,” said Smith. “Two containers were just garbage and debris on the property from the years the building was not being used. We got that out before we even started to take the building down.”
Smith is prioritizing keeping the property neat before the construction of the new building can begin.
“We are trying to keep the fence neat and the sidewalk cleaned up for the community,” Smith said. “I did some landscaping on the sidewalk to make it neat.”
The abandoned building has been an eyesore for the Great Neck community for many years. Smith shared that many residents have walked by and told her how happy they are to see it gone.
“I’ve had so many conversations with people who said this property has been here forever and are just sitting here. They are happy to have it down,” said Smith. “I’m getting thumbs up and beeps from drivers passing by.”
To speed up the demolition process, Town of North Hempstead Councilwoman Christine Liu has been working with the town to obtain the proper permits.
“Christine Liu was wonderful. She helped me speed the process along to get it done, and she even offered to come and do some volunteer work to help us out,” said Smith. “She helped us move it along. If not, we wouldn’t be doing this right now. We had been waiting for over two weeks.”
Once the debris is cleaned up from the site, Global Environmental will pack it up for a new crew to come in.
Smith shared that the owner of the property will be building a multi-purpose office building on the plot.
