Station Yards bets on Long Island retailers to fill spaces, draw shoppers to Ronkonkoma site

Station Yards, the massive mixed-use development taking shape beside the Ronkonkoma train station, has a strong retail tenancy because of a focus on bringing in locally owned businesses instead of national chains, the developer said.

“We wanted it to be this place that felt like Long Island when you got here. … Like you couldn’t pick it up and drop it in the middle of any other city" that was already "full of Cheesecake Factories and Starbucks,” said Christopher Kelly, senior vice president of Tritec Real Estate Co., the Ronkonkoma-based developer.

Located on a 53-acre site stretching from Garrity Avenue east to Mill Road, in a former industrial and retail district north of the Long Island Rail Road  station, the $1.3 billion Station Yards development will have 1,450 apartments, 195,000 square feet of retail space and 360,000 square feet of office space when it is complete in six to eight years.

Of the 67,000 square feet of space for stores, eateries and other businesses that has been constructed so far, 89% is leased to 19 tenants, Kelly said. Those that have opened since fall 2024 include Great South Bay Brewery, the Tex-Mex eatery Lucharitos, Vespa Italian Kitchen and Cocktails, Toast Coffee & Kitchen, Cornucopia Natural Foods grocery store, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop, Hammer & Stain crafting studio, Playa Bowls and FourLeaf Federal Credit Union.

All but Ben & Jerry’s, Playa Bowls and Hammer & Stain are businesses with older locations that started on Long Island.

'Any woman's dream'

Also, new tenants under construction are Hotworx, an infrared sauna fitness studio that will open this spring; The French Workshop, a bakery that will open by May; and Bloom, a combination florist, hair salon and spa that will open in April.

Bloom is “any woman’s dream, and that’s what I wanted to encapsulate,” said the shop’s owner, Kerry Weisse, a Long Island resident.

Bloom will employ 12 professionals experienced in the floral, hairstyling and aesthetician industries, said Weisse, who expects to draw a significant amount of wedding-related business.

She chose Station Yards because of its status as a mixed-use development, she said.

“It is a community there, and we wanted to make sure that we cater to everybody,” she said.

Bethpage couple James and Tiffany Upton, who will  operate the Hotworx franchise, chose Station Yards for their studio because of the community feel of the location, Tiffany Upton said.

“And I just loved the concept of Station Yards, with the people living there and the restaurants and the social aspect of it,” said Upton, adding that the studio will employ about 10 people.

The Station Yards development is a significant improvement over what was at the site before, but it seems to be focused on a younger demographic, based on the bulk of parking spaces being in garages instead of in front of the shops, and the residential units being for rent instead of for sale, said Salvatore Napolitano, 75, who is president of the Greater Ronkonkoma Civic Association.

“I think it’s all about, where does it take us two years from now, when all the construction is done, all the different eating places, retail shops are open? It’ll be interesting to find out. … I’m interested from a community standpoint,” Napolitano said.

Strong demand for housing

In 2017, construction began on 489 apartments, called Alston Station Yards, in Station Yards.

There are now 877 completed apartments. An additional 175 apartments, called The Core Station Yards, will be completed this June.

As of Monday, 97% of the existing apartments are leased, and rents start at about $3,000 a month, Kelly said. Both residential and retail leasing is strong at the development, and Long Island’s tight amount of multifamily housing and high price of single-family homes continue to drive the brisk demand for apartments at the development, he said. 

“Station Yards was developed in an area that had long been blighted, so early on we needed retailers willing to bet on the vision. As the residential component leased up and the project established itself as a true destination, retailer confidence grew and lease activity accelerated,” he said.

The transit-oriented development also benefits from its location adjacent to the Ronkonkoma LIRR station, which generates customers, some of whom don’t live at Station Yards, for the businesses, Kelly said.

On the second-busiest branch of the LIRR, the Ronkonkoma station had a 2025 total ridership of about 3.71 million, averaging about 10,154 riders per day, said David Steckel, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Other developments

Tritec has built other transit-oriented developments, including the Shoregate residential and retail development next to the Bay Shore LIRR, that was finished in 2024, as well as the New Village at Patchogue, a residential, retail and office project near an LIRR station, was finished in 2014.

While it’s not a requirement that Tritec projects involve public transit, it helps, said Jimmy Coughlan, executive vice president of the company.

“We can really build anywhere. I think if it’s not going to be by a train station, it should be by some sort of transit. So, either, you know, close to highways, something that’s easily accessible, so that we can attract a wide swath of communities,” he said.

Last year, 623,000 people who don’t live or work at Station Yards visited the businesses there, Kelly said.

“So, we’re really happy with the amount of traffic we’re getting, but I think, for retail, lunchtime can be” a challenge, depending on where the tenants are located, he said.

Bringing in the medical component of the development will boost the lunchtime crowd, he said.

In February, Tritec got approval from the Town of Brookhaven to build 285 more apartments and 30,000 square feet of medical office space at Station Yards. Construction will start in the second quarter of this year and it will be done in about 30 months, Kelly said.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

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.