Former Oyster Bay Town Councilman Tom Hogan Jr. has finally got his real estate development project for the former Westbury Drive-In on Brush Hollow Road completed. An attorney with offices in Locust Valley, he has made his money in real estate and recently renovated several of his properties there.

"It took a long time to get here. We started planning in 1989. BJ's Warehouse opened on Saturday, Dec. 4 with ceremony, with 200 kids, who are working there, singing."

The opening of the U/A Theater wasn't a formal event because of the confusion with the Nassau County Fire Marshal's office, he said. That opening, planned for Thursday, Dec. 9 was delayed until Friday at noon.

Mr. Hogan was philosophical about that delay and the length of time, 10 years, his project took to complete.

"It takes a very long time to bring things to fruition," he said, "But I have no complaints. I understand the system and understand everything people are obligated to do. The Town of Oyster Bay was very thorough and the elected officials pursued what they felt was in the people's best interests. I felt we had an equal right to utilize our land in the manner we chose to and the courts agreed with us," he said.

The long struggle went to the courts and even the Oyster Bay Landmarks Commission got involved. They tried to landmark the drive-in theater to stop its demolition. Mr. Hogan offered the screen to the town and suggested they put it up in one of the Tobay Beach parking lots for residents to watch movies. There were no takers.

Mr. Hogan said, "The community is much better served in the manner in which we are now using the property. It is a clean safe attractive complex, that today is bringing in hundreds of jobs to the community and millions of dollars in real property and sales tax revenues.

"And U/A and BJ's are the type of tenants, together with ourselves as landlords who will see to it that it will be maintained in the very finest manner it can be," said Mr. Hogan.

The site, which is high enough to allow great sunset watching, has over 6,600 trees and shrubs. The movie theater is fully handicap accessible. "It goes far beyond the ADA requirements. There are three handicapped seats available as you go in on the first level, of the theater, which enters in the middle."

He said BJ's has joined the adopt-a-school program and will work with the Cantiague School to assist them in any way they want.

Mr. Hogan left public office to devote his time to the Westbury Drive-In project. He is open to serving the public again. "I would love to. I can't tell you how much I miss that." He said time would tell if he returned to it.

Executives at United Artists Theater Circuit took the delays in stride on Dec. 9, as they waited for the new Westbury 12 Theater to open. Invitations had gone out to people for 4 p.m. performances and those who came were given emergency passes for a future performance. Tickets Thursday were $1, but will cost $8.50 and $5.50 for seniors.

Inside the theater, Nassau County Fire Marshal was checking the equipment. Signal lights kept flashing from fire alert boxes while at the same time, new employees took advantage of the down time to learn their job duties.

Charles M. Fogel, U/A vice president/operations Eastern Region was as proud as Mr. Hogan of the new employment statistics. It employs 80 to 100 people weekly. They are mostly full time employees. Anyone who works more than 30 hours a week will receive hospitalization, 401Ks and vacations.

"The drive-in had 15 workers," said Mr. Fogel. "It was ugly." He opens seven or eight theaters a year. "We expect this to be one of the big ones," he said.

The new theater, he said proudly, was the only one in Nassau County to have stadium seats with 8-track Sony Dymanic Digital Sound. The Westbury 12 Theater takes credit cards and sells tickets three days in advance of shows, more firsts.

There are two big theaters of 500 seats; two with 400 seats and the rest are 200 and 250 seat theaters, with a total seating of 3,000.

With the choice of theaters, they can show a movie in as many sites as needed. For example, they had three prints of The Green Mile. It was shown in two theaters, to about 100 people on Dec. 10.

Having so many theaters means that people will be coming and going all evening long, said Mr. Hogan, as opposed to patrons at the nearby Westbury Music Theater, when the patrons all come and go at the same times.

"The traffic controlled intersection should eliminate problems for people leaving the U/A complex. There are three stacking lanes and in the multi-plex cinema, not everyone is leaving at the same time. They are coming and going all during the evening," he said.

The new manager of the Westbury 12 Theater is Jennifer Novoa of Sea Cliff. She formerly worked at a U/A theater in New York City. "This is a great opportunity, and a great new theater," she said.