The perks (and costs) of living in LI's new downtown complexes

Edward Eder lives in a rental apartment complex steps from the Farmingdale Long Island Rail Road station, which means he can time his train trips to the minute to see the Knicks play at Madison Square Garden.

"For me, the huge bonus of living next to a train line is having better access to the city," said Eder, 41, who moved two years ago into a two-bedroom penthouse at the Fairfield Metro at Farmingdale Village. From the building’s lobby, it takes Eder two minutes to walk to the station for a 57-minute train ride to Manhattan. The return trip is equally well-timed.

"If I sit in the first car of the train on the way home, I can be back in the lobby of my building before the train even departs again," Eder said.

Eder, who grew up in Smithtown, said, "One of the misconceptions is that everyone who lives in these types of buildings is commuting to work in New York City."

He owns a Martin’s Potato Bread delivery route on Long Island, and only takes the train for fun that includes attending hip-hop concerts, trying the cuisine at hot new restaurants and strolling the recently completed Little Island park at Hudson River Park in Manhattan.

A railroad buff who has decorated his apartment walls with replicas of train station and railroad crossing signs, he said train sounds are music to his ears.

"Hearing the train’s air horn if my windows are open or watching it [the locomotive] pass by from the rooftop are things I enjoy," he said. "I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else."

High-end amenities

As new apartment complexes continue to spring up near LIRR stations, nowadays there’s no such thing as living on the wrong side of the tracks. Long Islanders in age brackets from millennials to retirees are leaving single-family homes behind to live so close to LIRR stations that it often takes less than 10 minutes — and often just a New York minute — to walk to the train platform.

For residents of the Farmingdale complex, that means a lifestyle with hotel-like amenities such as concierge service, fitness and business centers, fireplace and rooftop lounges, and a train waiting area.

"We are an actual one minute from our door to the train platform, but a few more minutes if you grab ‘n’ go your latte at Starbucks in our East residential building," said Deborah Bohrer, director of marketing and assistant director of leasing. Rents in the building are $2,695 for a studio apartment, $2,795 to $3,795 for a one-bedroom and $2,495 to $4,595 for a two-bedroom duplex or penthouse-style space, Bohrer said.

Fairfield owns and manages apartment communities totaling around thousands of rental units on Long Island, including buildings in walking distance of Mineola, the Five Towns, Lynbrook and Port Jefferson train platforms, Bohrer said.

Apartment complexes near train stations in Suffolk County are also offering convenience and luxury amenities.

Last summer, The Wel, a 260-unit apartment complex, opened a short distance from Wellwood Avenue and the LIRR station in downtown Lindenhurst. The complex contains studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, with monthly rents starting in the $2,500 range, according to Thewelapts.com. Amenities at The Wel include a pool and patio deck, a rooftop lounge and a 24-hour fitness center. Recent social events for residents include food and craft beer tastings.

At Wyandanch Village, another major transit-oriented development going up in the Town of Babylon, residents can hop on a train to the city from the LIRR station that has a new station house and a parking garage with a colorful 50-foot glass sculpture.

"We basically don’t need a car here," said Allen Gary Smith, 68, a retired aircraft communications technician who used to own a single-family home in Dix Hills, but five years ago moved with his family to a three-bedroom apartment at Wyandanch Village. "The train platform is literally right behind the building. We don’t have to cross a street to get there; just walk right into the terminal," said Smith, a professional songwriter and musician who takes the train to gospel music gigs in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Rents at Wyandanch Village range from $1,750 for a studio to $3,000 for a three-bedroom apartment; the complex also includes affordable housing based on income. Residents have access to an ice-skating rink and a seasonal farmers market. Construction is expected to begin in the spring on a health and wellness center with a YMCA and community health facility.

Smith enjoys having a bank, Caribbean restaurant and convenience store on the first floor of his building. There’s also an on-site gym, he says, "that I’d like to use more often."

New developments coming

If a whistle-stop crib appeals to you, a building might be going up soon by your own branch of the LIRR.

Joseph Garcia, a licensed real estate salesperson at Weichert Realtors in Farmingdale and president of the Farmingdale Chamber of Commerce, said that with open land scarce, "train stations and the areas around them on Long Island are one of the last places where you have large tracts of land that are in need of redevelopment."

In Nassau County, apartment buildings adjacent to train stations — officially known as Transit-Oriented Developments, or TODs — are being built in Roslyn and Westbury. A 109,000-square-foot building with 54 rental apartments and 6,600 square feet of commercial space is replacing a vacant retail center next to the Roslyn Long Island Rail Road station, and a 72-unit building is to be constructed at the site of a warehouse on Railroad Avenue near the Westbury station, according to the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency (IDA), which reviews projects for tax incentives.

In Suffolk, "TODs are a critical component of our overall regional transportation and development plan, which is called Connect Long Island," said Jonathan Keyes, county director of downtown and transit-oriented development. Major projects such as Wyandanch Village and in Copiague, Riverhead, Port Jefferson and Huntington Station "are all developments in and around areas by a train station," Keyes said, adding that the TODs are attractive to "empty nesters, people entering the workforce and for everyone in between who values the ability to go about their daily lives without necessarily getting in a car for every trip they take."

Gaining momentum

Now almost ubiquitous, such developments used to be "a very niche, experimental thing" with only 400 rentable apartments built on Long Island between 2001 and 2006, said Eric Alexander, president of Vision Long Island, a regional smart growth planning organization. But the movement has been gaining steam — during the past decade and a half 15,000 TOD units, or about 1,000 a year locally, have been completed, Alexander said.

TRITEC is developing the Hub, a mixed-use project creating a new downtown community on 53 acres just south of the Long Island Expressway and centered on the Ronkonkoma LIRR station. The developer’s Alston Station Square, the first phase of the project, opened in July 2019, with 489 apartments that are more than 90% occupied, said Christopher Kelly, vice president of marketing for TRITEC real estate in East Setauket. Rents there range from the mid-$2,000s to the mid-$3,000s, according to the Alston Station Square website. Ground was recently broken for the project’s second phase, which will include 388 new apartments, 73,000 square feet of retail space, 16,000 square feet of office space and a large public plaza. The first building is expected to open in 2023, Kelly said.

One of the tenants in the new building is Brian Cea, 51, who moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Alston Station Square five months ago. After 15 years of living in a single-family home on Suffolk County’s North Shore and driving to work for an hour and half on the Long Island Expressway, he now takes the train to his job with the New York Police Department.

"It’s a game changer," Cea said of his new routine of walking six minutes to the Ronkonkoma LIRR station. With an hour-and-25-minute trip to Penn Station, he said, "I have more time to relax on my ride, to take a nap, read a book or catch up on my emails." With a barbecue joint and Red Lobster also within strolling distance of his new home, he added, "I’m doing a lot more walking than I ever did."

Boost to downtowns

Many of these complexes are also near Main Street, providing new business and an economic boost to downtown retailers, Alexander said.

"Use of services and restaurants and bars is off the charts," in downtowns with transit-oriented developments, Alexander said.

"When they were built everybody expected very young people to rent to commute to the city," Garcia said, "but we're seeing many more retirees and older tenants for the same reason the young people are in these buildings: to be where the action is, to not have to get in the car all the time, to have quick access to lunch and brunch." He calls these converts to apartment life "suburban-urban people who want to live in the suburbs, but want a little of that urban feel.

"We’re finally getting to build housing that offers what younger and older people are looking for," he said.