MTA to Release RFP for Vacant Lynbrook Stores

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is planning to release a request for proposals on its property just below the railroad tracks on Atlantic Avenue in Lynbrook, an area long populated by a strip of vacant stores.

Village officials explained that the poor condition of the vacant stores has made it difficult to entice prospective business owners to open shop on Atlantic Avenue. But after recent discussions with the village, MTA officials could potentially offer a tenant 10 years of free rent, with the understanding that the owner would pay out of pocket for any remediation of the property. An option to stay another 10 years would be negotiated at the end of the first term.

The planned RFP is good news for Atlantic Avenue business owners, many of whom feel that the vacant stores - which, ironically, sit just below the "The Shoppes at Lynbrook" sign - have had a negative effect on business in the area.

"You come into town and the village looks like it's bombed out," said Bill Gaylor, owner of Lyn Gift Shop and president of the Lynbrook Chamber of Commerce. "It's criminal that those stores have been allowed to fall into disarray in the heart of our business district."
   
But while relieved that some progress was being made, Gaylor said that the MTA likely would have to offer more years of free rent and/or additional attractive options for the prospective tenant.
   
Lynbrook Mayor Brian Curran said he was hopeful that the MTA would issue an RFP for the east side of Atlantic Avenue in September. He shared Gaylor's feelings that the vacant stores were detrimental to Lynbrook business on the strip.
   
"You walk to any store owner anywhere on Atlantic Avenue, they'll always point to those stores in the middle of the town that just kills us," Curran said, "and we have to get them filled."