A gauntlet has been thrown. But will anyone pick it up?
Two teams of developers, one headed by AvalonBay Communities and the other by Ornstein Leyton Company, will each construct a Bellport home in five days next week as part of Habitat for Humanity’s nationwide building blitz.
“AvalonBay is ready to meet the challenge – I’m betting that our crew is faster than Orenstein Leyton’s, although I’m sure they think otherwise,” Matthew Whalen, vice president the Melville-based AvalonBay, said in a press release.
Both have similar track records and experience; they’re large Long Island builders who also participated in Habitat’s blitz two years ago.
When asked by Newsday, Whalen said he’s ready to back his words with some sort of collateral if Alec Ornstein, president of his Garden City company, goes along with a friendly wager: “I will bet Alec whatever he wants to bet. However confident he feels, I will match that confidence because I’m that confident in my team.”
There’s no indication that Ornstein knows he might have to watch another crew’s timing as well as his own. He could not be reached for comment yesterday, but in the press release, he said that “it is an honor to be in partnership with such a respectable organization, not only to build a home for a family in need, but to help in further enriching the Long Island community.”
The two teams will be making noise and more from about 6 a.m. Monday to hopefully about 7 p.m. Friday on the same street, Bourdois Avenue, where two mothers and their children will also put sweat equity into their future homes.
They'll be joined by volunteers from Medford-based Pulte Homes of New York and Dix Hills-based JCV Development Inc.
The project has been organized by Habitat's Suffolk affiliate and Long Island Home Builders Care Inc., the charitable arm of the Long Island Builders Institute. Scores of vendors, from the mirror supplier to the paint guys, will donate their time and supplies too.
One home will go to Sharon Kwaak, a certified nursing assistant, and daughter Zaylee, 4, who now live in a small basement one-bedroom apartment in Patchogue. The other will go to Ana Maria Rodas, a Costco employee, and children Diana, 20, Ana, 19, and Richard, 17; they now live in Habitat transitional housing in Bay Shore after moving from a Brentwood basement apartment with structural damage.
--Ellen Yan