As one of the larger real estate owners in the hamlet of Oyster Bay, Steve Minicozzi of Cozy Realty has been working on his holdings and renovating them. He is looking forward to what he sees as a positive momentum in the hamlet. Mr. Minicozzi said,

"It's on the rebound. Right now I'm sitting back and seeing what the other groups do and will jump on board with them." But, he's been very busy on his own.

Steve Minicozzi feels that Upper Audrey Avenue is doing very well. There have been many changes over the past few years including the closing of Railz which has been gone for over a year. He said, "Their lease expired and we chose not to renew it just to improve the area. We are really looking forward to the carousel and the old railroad station being fixed up, so we closed the bar and will see what we will do. Whether we use it for retail or apartments, remains to be seen.

"We got help from the town. They put up new street lighting - they made the lights brighter. They removed two large trees that were lifting the sidewalk and creating squirrel conditions: they were hopping over into the building. They planted new ones although they are still very small," he said.

Another retail space on Upper Audrey has gone residential. It had been the location of General Utilities with their "Little General" logo on the façade, about 20 years ago. Then for about 10 years it was the Attic Door Furniture store.

"They went to East Main Street and the building was converted to residential in 1996. All the street is zoned for commercial space. All of them we are waiting on. Obviously commercial is the better use for it," said Mr. Minicozzi.

"We just put in new windows at 115, the former site of the bar (Railz). We also own the taxi building at 123 and put a new roof and vinyl siding on that house. We also put a new roof and new windows at 107 Audrey Avenue (the former beauty salon). We completely renovated it inside and out and it is a two family home now. That will stay residential." There is a pebbled parking lot tucked inside the hedge and the entrance way is well landscaped.

He said, "I'm not really for or against the carousel. At this point we are just looking to improve the area and the carousel gave us the initiative to clean up the area. It was a hangout area. When they started to fix up the railroad station it was exciting to see the area was going to be improved.

"The carousel seemed nice including moving the entrance of the park to the end of Audrey Avenue. All of Railroad Avenue needs to be improved from the corner of Maxwell and along to South Street which the LIRR owns.

"Once the station is fixed up and the area is paved or bricked it will look better. In the rendition proposals it would be bricked. Very often I have my guys pick up the weeds and garbage around the old station," he added.

Steve is a member of the Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce. He said, "I would like to see all these Oyster Bay community groups working together. I would be happy to help each of them but they are not asking."

Mr. Minicozzi said, "I worked with Joan Mahon [executive director of the Main Street Association] and Main Street on the parking area behind Townsend Square. We put benches in for them. They were since removed because they became a hang out so they were moved to the Oyster Bay Community Center location across the parking lot. We are still waiting for LIPA to finish the electrical service there. Joan Mahon has been going to LIPA about the electricity for over a year. We want new electrical service for Bay Cleaners. It is to be underground, not overhead wires. They dug a large hole behind the Atlantic Steamer firehouse. We had to put up the snow fence for safety reasons. "

The Cozy Realty office is located in Townsend Square and they own property immediately behind it to White Street. He said, "Joan has been working hard on it. It would be nice to have it finished finally."

The problem with LIPA, he explained, is that they want to turn the electricity off for a day and there is a deli, a dry cleaner and a restaurant, so they can't have the electricity turned off for an entire day. "They need a generator to work for a day to allow the businesses to operate. They haven't done that."

He added, "A brand new lamppost in the Townsend Square parking lot was knocked down by a snowplow. Last year a car knocked down one of them. The town was concerned about plowing the parking lot, but in the last snow storm they did a nice job of plowing the area, except for the lamppost."

Townsend Square has been affected by the fire at Nobman's. He said, "It's nice to see Nobman's getting started. The basement is large, which is good. It's going to be beautiful. If half the number of people that go into Nobman's got a cup of coffee at the Harborside Deli it would be great. It can't come back soon enough."

One of the problems with Townsend Square is that White's Creek runs from the waterfront up to the North Shore Community Church building, running underground. Mr. Minicozzi said, "There is always a problem with water coming up into the basement at Townsend Square. Since the fire it has gotten significantly worse. I think they [Nobman's] are experiencing the problem too. The weight of that building created pressure that kept the water down. One of their engineers came into our basement. I told them we had to put in a relatively large pump to drain the water out. That is another reason we are eager to have it built. With Nobman's gone, the basement acted like a bathtub when it rained.

"This building received significant damage with that fire as well. There was smoke and water damage. We put in a new roof, carpets, ceiling tiles and doors. We spent about $100,000 in repairs. It could have been worse. The firefighters did an excellent job. They worked on the roof of Townsend Square and protected this building very well."

While the new plan for Nobman's includes eight apartments, Mr. Minicozzi said he was not considering using some of his space at Townsend Square for apartments. He said, "We have a pretty good office clientele but maybe, where the cleaners is located, we are considering putting a second floor over cleaners that was residential before."

He said, "I was very surprised to see that at 123 South Street they are building up in the back. It looks nice but I'm surprised he would build office space where there is so much office space in town now. Hopefully he will bring in an anchor tenant that will help the surrounding businesses."

Mr. Minicozzi likes the concept of having residents over the stores saying, "The more people in town the better for business. My only concern is parking. If the people that live upstairs park in front of the stores, that is not helping the businesses."

The Town of Oyster Bay public information office said that a variance was granted for Nobman's. The original use of Nobman's was a combination of retail and office space which needed 45 parking spaces. The new use is for retail and residential which needs only 33 parking spaces. The town permitted the variance since it is typical of downtown properties - that there is shared parking both on the street and in the parking lot behind Townsend Square.

Mr. Minicozzi said that right now the Knights of Columbus Hall is closed and if their new use calls for parking, then there won't be enough - unless they hold evening affairs.

Mr. Minicozzi confirmed that there is a need for apartments in Oyster Bay. "Even when we see there are apartments, they are not vacant very long, so there is still a demand for them. When someone moves out we fix it up: paint and carpet and charge what the market demands. For a two bedroom apartment that means about $1,500, plus utilities."

He said, "On Mill River Road I bought two places. One is a two family house at 207. There we did a complete renovation and are waiting on the landscaping. The other at 221 to 227 on Mill River Road is in the process of renovation. The long concrete building that is for four families. We are trying to improve that area as well," he said.

Cozy Realty has about 50 properties. "We've expanded a little. They are not all in Oyster Bay, they include Oyster Bay, Bayville, Glen Cove and Westbury," Mr. Minicozzi said.

Just a bit of background: Steve Minicozzi's father is Ed Minicozzi who owns General Utilities a business he started in Oyster Bay which is now located in Plainview. He is a Locust Valley Rotarian. "In two weeks my father is going with Rotary to Biloxi to rebuild a Boys & Girls Club there," he said proudly.

Steve is a former member of the Bayville-Centre Island Rotary group. He too has been active in the giving community. He donated a defibrillator machine for use in the whole Rough Rider program for both baseball and football. He has also been working with the Oyster Bay Rail Road Museum. "I've done nothing recently, but I'm here for them: waiting to hear from them. It's a project I look forward to seeing completed. I worked with Dave Morrison and am looking forward to the next phase - that should be the windows and doors and I will help them any way I can," he said.

"Those guys work real hard. They were laying the track last Saturday, Feb. 25. They've come a long way, that area really looks great!" said Steve.