Northwell Health planning $45M expansion into Yaphank retail, office, residential complex

Northwell Health will become the second-largest anchor among the business tenants at The Boulevard, the $450 million retail, office and residential complex under development along William Floyd Parkway in Yaphank.

The largest health care provider in New York state, Northwell is investing about $45 million for interior construction and equipment to open three facilities — a multispecialty medical office building, an ambulatory surgery center and an urgent care center — in the development in 2024, said Alex Costello, spokesman for the New Hyde Park-based health system.

“Northwell chose the Yaphank location for a few reasons. It’s a good location with incoming real estate development in the area; it works well with our multispecialty campuses in Manorville and Shirley; and it allows us to offer more outpatient services from Peconic Bay Medical Center,” he said.

Northwell’s planned Yaphank facilities also will help it expand services on the East End, Costello said.

“We’re working to develop comprehensive women’s health in Riverhead and want to support the upcoming surgical pavilion at South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore. We’re also expanding our cancer services in Suffolk, with the primary focus being Riverhead, Bay Shore and Huntington,” he said.

Northwell’s 28,000-square-foot multispecialty medical office building will offer dental service, imaging, general pediatrics, orthopedics, pain management and physical therapy, Costello said.

The health care system’s ambulatory surgery center will be the sole occupant of a 16,200-square-foot building, while the urgent care center, GoHealth, will occupy 2,287 square feet unit in a multitenant building.

Northwell’s three facilities in the Yaphank development will employ a total of about 100 people, Costello said.

“Most of them will be new hires, but some may come from other Northwell facilities,” he said.

Moving forward

Located at the former Parr Meadows racetrack site, The Boulevard is a 322-acre retail, office and residential development previously called the Meadows at Yaphank, which is on William Floyd Parkway just north of the Long Island Expressway at Exit 68N.

Also under construction in the complex are upscale rental apartments and for-sale condos and townhomes being developed by The Beechwood Organization in Jericho.

The development’s retail portion, which will total 295,728 square feet when it’s done, is called The Shoppes at The Boulevard. The only tenants on the retail side currently are Ridgewood Savings Bank, which opened this month, and a 197,668-square-foot Walmart Supercenter that opened in 2021 and is the anchor of the shopping center.

Also, a Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel, adjacent to the retail center, was completed on the property in 2020.

On May 8, the Brookhaven Planning Board voted in favor of amendments to the site plan for retail side of the project.

The board approvals included permitting the two buildings that are to be constructed solely for Northwell to be used for health care instead of retail, said Brian Ferruggiari, spokesman for Rose-Breslin Associates LLC, the Yonkers-based developer of the retail portion. Construction of those two Northwell buildings will take at least a year, he said.

The planning board also approved changing plans for an 11,000-square-foot building into two 4,500-square-foot retail buildings with a 2,000-square-foot brick paver plaza in the middle for outdoor seating; and the addition of brick paver patio areas for outdoor seating around two sides of a planned 5,000-square-foot building, he said.

So far, four buildings, including the bank and Walmart, have been constructed in the retail side of the development.

Monti’s Barbershop, which will open this fall; Southpaw Brewing Co., which will open this summer; and Tropical Smoothie Cafe, which recently signed a lease, will be among the tenants in an 8,000-square-foot building that is finished, Ferruggiari said.

Bagel Boss, slated for a fall opening; Yaphank Wine and Spirits, which will open this summer; and GoHealth will be among the tenants in a 9,000-square-foot building that is finished, he said.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.com@ToryParrish1

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.