The owner of a Middle Neck Road jewelry store presented a plan to Village of Great Neck Plaza trustees at their meeting Wednesday to convert space above his shop originally intended for office space into apartments.

“I simply cannot rent the second floor as commercial,” said Danny Arbusman, president of Jewels By Viggi, located at 65 Middle Neck Road. “I’ve tried all kinds of trades, and it simply doesn’t work.”

Arbusman and his architect John Schimenti applied for a conditional-use permit from the board to renovate building. The plan calls for the second floor to be refurbished as two apartments, and for a third floor to be added, which would also be used for two apartments.

All the apartments would be one-bedroom dwellings, Schimenti said.

Arbusman also said he wants to renovate the outside of the building as well.

“The façade is limestone, and for whatever reason it is falling apart,” Arbusman said.

Great Neck Plaza Deputy Mayor Ted Rosen — who presided over Wednesday’s meeting in Mayor Jean Celender’s absence —  said trustees amended the village’s zoning several years ago to provide incentives for property owners to redevelop their upstairs spaces as living spaces. He said the rezoning was intended to get more customers to shop downtown.

“It’s something we encourage,” Rosen said of the proposed apartments. “We are happy to see this type of project be planned.”

The board deferred a decision on the application , adjourning it until their next meeting on June 17.

Trustees also voted to authorize RBA Group, an engineering and design firm, to do preliminary design work for the village’s Welwyn Road/Shoreward Drive Project, which looks to calm traffic in the area as well as beautify it.

The village agreed to pay $30,000 to RBA for preliminary design work and data collection. Village trustees have already hired another group, Lockwood, Kessler & Bartlett, Inc., to do design work on the project for $245,000.

Rosen said at the meeting that trustees thought it was important to get a second firm to give critical input on the project.

Celender called the approach to having two design firms a “design competition.” She said while the village liked some of the proposals LKB made, they also liked some of RBA’s proposals.

“We wanted to have competitive design to get the best possible preferred alternative,” Celender said. “The two firms will come up with designs, we will work out with how to mesh the two and then we will make presentation.”

Celender said the project is estimated to cost a little more than $1 million, but that the village got a Transportation Enhancement Program grant for about $838,000 from the state Department of Transportation for the project. The village will lay out all the money first, and be reimbursed later. The village will pay for what the grant does not cover.  

Celender said the project will include calming traffic in the area and adding new brick sidewalks.

Also discussed at the meeting was the possibility of a new apartment complex at 15 Bond St.

Michael Sweeney, commissioner of public services for the village, said the proposed project is a multi-family residential dwelling and is set to have 60 to 62 units. It is proposed to have four stories of residential apartments with a fifth story where a recreation room would be.

The project was first presented to the village trustees in May. The applicants, 14 Park Place, LLC, was set to present their plans to the village Board of Zoning Appeals June 10

Sweeney said the site is currently occupied by a one and a half story medical building, a parking lot and a two-family home. He said two people currently live there.