The Hicksville downtown area recently received large financial backing from the Town of Oyster Bay to continue the town’s revitalization projects.
scheduled to in 2025.
“A renaissance is coming to the Hicksville community thanks to public and private investments in the community,” Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino said. “Together, we’re enhancing and transforming the Hicksville business district into a vibrant downtown that millennials, families, and empty-nesters desire – with housing, restaurants, and office space near public transportation.”
The $6.2 million granted to Hicksville comes after the state gave the town $10 million for the project in 2017. Some $1.3 million was set aside for private investment while the remaining $8.7 million was primarily used for planning, engineering costs, design costs, and construction, according to the Town of Oyster Bay Public Information Officer Brian Nevin.
“Additional money was needed to see the projects to completion,” Nevin said. “That [the initial award] was like seed money to get the projects started.”
The newly awarded funding is specifically designated for four main projects in Hicksville’s downtown district.
Festival Plaza will see changes that include the construction of a raised walking path with landscaping, seating areas, and safer pedestrian connections to the town’s LIRR station.
Kennedy Park is also set to see an expansion. The park currently has Broadway running through it. Nevin said a reconfiguration of the parking lot, roadway, and park would create a spot for outdoor activities like concerts and pop-up vendors.
The Underline, the area underneath the LIRR by Broadway and Newbridge Road, is also set for expansion with better lighting.
Other beautification upgrades will include new lighting, trees, benches, trash cans, and crosswalks throughout the downtown area.
“We’re basically enhancing the infrastructure along where all of these private investments are taking place,” Nevin said.
The first privately funded part of Hicksville’s downtown revitalization was unveiled in 2020 at 35 Broadway. A vacant office building had been transformed into 18 new housing opportunities and a commercial space. In November 2023, officials broke ground on a nine-figure, privately funded project at 99 Newbridge Rd., featuring 227 residential opportunities with retail and restaurant space. New private projects that are set to be worked on in 2025 and 2026 include multiple resident, retail, and restaurant opportunities.
The revitalization project will be impactful for the community which will be the ones to benefit the most from the undertaking.
“You have to have community buy-in,” Nevin said. “This project, and other downtown revitalization projects across Long Island, are built on the basis of developing the community.”
The Town of Oyster Bay does not have an estimated end date for the project at this time.
