Newsday: Buying in Baldwin: Waterfront homes, downtown revitalization a draw

By Stacey Altherr // May 15, 2023

With beaches a 15-minute drive away and a burgeoning downtown area, Baldwin draws homebuyers with a mix of convenience, short commutes and waterfront homes.

Located on the south shore in the Town of Hempstead, Baldwin is around a 35-minute commute to New York City and is a short drive to both Jones Beach and Long Beach.

A large revitalization project in downtown areas of Baldwin has been on the path to full approval by the town. It includes The Grand at Baldwin, a $100 million project by Breslin Realty Development Corps featuring 215 rental apartments and 5,000 square feet of retail stores and restaurants along Grand Avenue and Sunrise Highway.

Another project, the PGD Baldwin Commons, is going through the approval process for a $16 million building with 33 one- and two-bedroom apartments on Merrick Road as part of a workforce housing initiative, reserved for tenants making up to 60% of the area’s median income.

In addition to an array of parks — it has five, including the large Baldwin Park with sports fields and dog areas — Baldwin also has miles of canals and homes on the open bay. Baldwin Harbor is a more exclusive area of Baldwin that shares the same zip code and schools.

Entry point Capes and ranches start in the mid-$500,000s, with prices of $900,000 or more for large homes in the Baldwin Harbor area.

“It’s a highly mixed community as far as housing,” says Erik Mahler, owner of Mahler Realty in Baldwin, and a lifelong resident. “There’s a lot of mixed styles, from center hall Colonials to ranches.”

Baldwin is on land of the Meroke Native American tribe along the south shore. The arrival of the first European settlers is not known, but in 1660, the area was known as Hick’s Neck for settler John Hicks. It was later changed to Baldwinsville, and then to Baldwin.

By 1890, the port town had three hotels and several boarding houses, but it wasn’t until the late 1920s that the area expanded.