Sonic Owner Discusses Business Plan for East Meadow

Local residents quite possibly took a glimpse into the future Wednesday night as Spencer Hart shared his view of the proposed at the East Meadow Shopping Plaza during a public information meeting at

Hart, who owns Long Island’s only Sonic in North Babylon, has signed a 25-year least Nassau County’s first Sonic at the space formerly occupied by Rita’s Ices at 1900 Hempstead Tpke. in East Meadow.

“We’re very committed to the community,” Hart said. “If we’re going to succeed, the community has to succeed.”

Not only does Hart say that Sonic will benefit from the location near the busy intersection of East Meadow Avenue and Hempstead Turnpike, he added that other tenants in the center could benefit as well from Sonic’s presence.

“We think we’ll be good for the center,” Hart said. “We hope to bring business to the other tenants.”

Hart added that some of the vacancies in the center could also be addressed with Sonic’s arrival. He said Sonic had that effect in North Babylon.

“We think that our presence could help fill some of those vacancies and make it a little more of an attractive center for other businesses to come to,” he added.

Before Sonic can move forward with its plans, Sonic officials must present to the Hempstead Town Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) on March 7 at 2 p.m. The first two hearings at the request of the due to concerns of “numerous violations.”

“We’re obviously aware that there’s a bunch of violations in that broader center,” Hart said. “These have nothing to do with us, but we’ve been in dialogue with the landlord. He is very focused on it, has hired a contractor and is working on addressing [the violations.]”

Hart added that he’s committed to beautifying the area, and Sonic’s plan includes new landscaping that would take place on site at the location and along Hempstead Turnpike.

“We think that Sonic and East Meadow could be great partners,” Hart said. “East Meadow would be a great home for us for a long time and we’d like to see that happen.”

Patch will be breaking down how Sonic officials addressed traffic, clutter and other issues in the coming days. Are you in favor of Sonic coming to East Meadow? Tell us in the comments.