She was given 3 weeks to live. 7 years later, she's building a 47-home subdivision in Rocky Point.

Seven years ago, homebuilders Frank Meehan and Kathy Santomero-Meehan learned about a rare opportunity — the chance to build 47 houses on 35 acres in Rocky Point, where a subdivision had already received town approval. 

But it emerged at a dire moment for the couple. A doctor told Santomero-Meehan months earlier that her breast cancer had returned and spread to her liver  — and that she might have just three weeks to live.

She didn't give the potential project much thought at the time.

"Good luck, Frank," she recalled telling him. "Because it was a little out of our league."

He saw it differently. Just as he had planned vacations to Cuba and Costa Rica to give them something to look forward to despite her diagnosis, Frank Meehan viewed the Rocky Point development as a long-term commitment to their shared future.

"We've got to get this done," he told her. "We're a team." 

After purchasing the 35 acres for $4.7 million in 2021, the couple has leveled its rocky terrain, shipped out 35,000 truckloads of materials including sand, laid out a circular road through the development and built a gleaming white model home as part of a first phase of 10 houses. 

The Meehans are embarking on building one of the largest subdivisions of single-family homes on Long Island in decades — a significant development amid the region’s severe housing shortage. The homes will start at $799,000 — well above the area’s $535,000 median price — and some will sell for nearly $1 million in one of Long Island’s most affordable communities.

Nick Colonna, a lifelong Rocky Point resident and local real estate agent, said he expects the homes to sell given the demand for single family homes on Long Island — but he worries about the long-term impact on affordability in the middle-class suburb.

"It's good for people that are already invested and have no intention to sell," said Colonna, an agent at Aliano Real Estate. "But for people looking to break into the community, it's going to create a chasm because there's only so many homes that you're going to be able to buy that are [under] 650,000."

Still, the Meehans and their agent, Bryan Karp, of Coldwell Banker American Homes, believe buyers will be drawn to the new houses — especially as they compare them to older homes needing major upgrades.

After Santomero-Meehan's cancer diagnosis and the decadeslong fight over the site’s future that preceded the Meehans' involvement, selling new luxury homes during a housing boom may turn out to be the easy part.

But it wasn’t always a given that they  — or any developer — would get this far on the 35 sandy acres in Rocky Point.

Building big in a tight market

Buyers in the Estates at Rocky Point will be able to choose from five models ranging from 1,850 square feet to a 3,000-square-foot Colonial. The homes have four bedrooms and 2½ to three bathrooms, and the developer offers different floor plan options, including a multigenerational layout with two primary suites. The lots range from about one-third of an acre to nearly 1 acre.

Before the Meehans entered the picture, the site had been the focus of multiple failed development attempts.

In 2001, Fairfield Properties proposed building 186 luxury apartments at the site. The plan drew fierce opposition from residents and the Rocky Point Civic Association — including about 400 people who packed a public hearing. Newsday described it as "The Battle of Rocky Point." 

Fairfield withdrew the proposal within weeks but returned in 2005 with a scaled-down plan: a 55-and-over community offering public amenities, including an indoor pool and a soccer field. That pitch fell flat too. Fairfield never formally submitted the apartment plan for approval, according to Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico.

Eric Alexander, director of the nonprofit planning group Vision Long Island, said the original apartment plan likely would have brought more public benefits — and fewer school-age children — than the 47-home subdivision. But ultimately communities should have a voice in shaping development, said Alexander, who helped Fairfield solicit community input years ago.

"This is where they’ve landed," he said, calling the single-family housing project the "path of least resistance."

In 2018, while rebuilding the Harbor Light Pub in the Rockaways after Superstorm Sandy, Frank Meehan heard Fairfield might be looking to sell the Rocky Point site. 

He toured the site and   Fairfield partner Gary Broxmeyer told him the asking price was $6 million. Frank Meehan countered in an email with $1 million. If you’re not embarrassed by your opening offer, you’re offering too much, he reasoned.

Broxmeyer emailed him back almost immediately with a pointed two-word expletive. But the two kept talking. They eventually struck a deal in September 2021: $4.7 million, or $100,000 per lot. Frank Meehan had planned to use retaining walls to manage the site's hilly landscape, but his wife urged a full regrade, warning the original plan would be expensive and unattractive.

"The backyards would have been good for goats," he joked.

Instead, they leveled the land, reducing the elevation from 213 feet above sea level at its highest point to between 130 and 165 feet. Over time, they hauled out 800,000 cubic yards of sand and other materials, selling some to offset construction costs.

"Sand is like gold," Santomero-Meehan said.

The couple declined to say how much they made.

Down the road from the site, at Brooklyn Bagels, longtime Rocky Point resident Al McMaugh recalled his children sledding on the hills. Now 70, the retired construction worker said he worries about traffic spurred by the Meehan's development and whether buyers can afford the homes. 

"How much is the mortgage going to be, $6,000 a month?" he said. "[That's] pretty nuts."

His estimate isn't far-fetched. With taxes and insurance, monthly payments in Suffolk County can exceed $6,000, driven by record-high home prices and mortgage rates around 6%.

At the same bagel shop, Ruth Spoleti said she and her husband bought their Rocky Point home for $99,000 in 1995. She believes it’s now worth more than $500,000. She thinks the new houses could boost property values even further but still has some concerns.

"The only other issue is the traffic, and from what I hear, the schools," she said, expressing concerns that the development could bring more families with children and increase class sizes at local schools.

Town Supervisor Dan Panico said subdivisions of this size are rare in Brookhaven, where few large residential parcels remain. Most developers propose apartments when land opens up, he said. 

The Town of Brookhaven has also been buying up hundreds of acres of wooded land for preservation over the past few years, Panico noted. The Estates at Rocky Point will preserve more than 5 acres in its northwest corner, he said. 

Mike Florio, CEO of the trade group Long Island Builders' Institute in Melville, struggled to remember a larger single-family subdivision that didn't include condos or 55-and-over age requirements. 

Florio often hears Long Islanders calls for construction of affordable starter homes but says the cost of building and scarcity of land leads developers toward other types of housing. 

"The availability of land is scarce," he said. "With the price of land — on top of insurance, construction costs, labor, materials — the market has really shifted to more multifamily with the need to create density in certain places and the expenses related to building," he said.

'Still here'

As the Meehans race to sell homes and strike while Long Island's real estate market is hot, Santomero-Meehan continues to battle cancer. She finished a round of radiation therapy to treat a recurrence of liver cancer last month and awaits more updates from her doctor later this year.

She credits her recovery since 2018 to a holistic treatment plan and her Christian faith.

The start of sales at the Estates has added stress, she said, but it's also been rewarding to see the development take shape. 

Santomero-Meehan hopes others facing grim diagnoses, like her doctor's estimate that she had just three weeks to live, will take comfort in what's possible.

"I'm still here," she said.