Coin flip: Shop's inclusion in E. Patchogue project an error, developer says
Inside Miller's Mint on Main Street in East Patchogue on Thursday. Credit: Morgan Campbell
An East Patchogue building occupied by a 54-year-old business dealing in coins, stamps and precious metals was mistakenly included in an application to redevelop several properties with apartments, the developer and the Town of Brookhaven said.
Newsday’s report Tuesday on the developer’s inclusion of the building at 313 E. Main St., occupied by Miller’s Mint, in the proposed apartment project worried longtime customers — some of whom called the store from out of state — and employees, said Harry Miller, who co-owns the shop with his wife, Joan Miller, and owns the building under his company, HTM Properties Inc.
"Well, especially my employees.They had relatives calling asking if they were losing their jobs," he said Thursday.
Newsday reported Tuesday that a Plainview-based developer, Rechler Equity Partners LLC, planned to buy several East Main Street properties in East Patchogue that would be demolished and redeveloped as a 91-unit, high-end apartment building called Greybarn Patchogue if the project receives town building approvals.
One of the properties reported as being included in the planned redevelopment was the Miller’s Mint building.
Miller did not respond to Newsday’s request for comment about the project last week.
But the coin shop property is listed in the land use application for the apartments that investment and development company R Squared LLC, which is Rechler’s sister company, submitted to the town July 13.
Rechler also confirmed last week that the property was part of the proposal.
Miller's Mint on Main Street in East Patchogue Credit: Morgan Campbell
On Wednesday, however, the developer and the town said the property was included in error.
"The Rechlers are going to reach out to the town to have the error in the application corrected," a spokesman for the company said Wednesday.
Miller’s Mint employs 10 people at the East Patchogue store; an office in Marysville, Tennessee; and a part-time office in Cape Coral, Fla., Harry Miller said.
He sent emails to his customers telling them his business was not closing, he said.
"We’re a local business, community-minded and we have a national reputation, actually international. I mean some of our biggest customers are in Europe," he said.
He said he has not personally talked to Rechler or the town but his attorney has reached out to the town.
Greybarn Patchogue would be the first major redevelopment in the "incentive overlay district" that the Town of Brookhaven approved in March 2020 to help revitalize a quarter-mile of East Main Street — from the Patchogue Village border to Grove Avenue. The overlay superseded existing zoning codes to encourage developers to build ground-level stores and upper-level apartments on East Main Street.
Before the end of the year, Rechler plans to buy seven properties -- 293, 297, 299, 303, 305, 311 and 312 E. Main St. – from two companies led by Evan Abazis, the developer said through its spokesman.
The plan is to demolish six of the properties, including the one occupied by event venue Mediterranean Manor, at 303 E. Main St., and replace them with the apartment building, Rechler said.
Rechler plans to donate one of the buildings, 312 E. Main St., to the Patchogue Arts Council for an art space.
Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.
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