Recreational marijuana delivery, second Thomas Valva trial, Sun Vet Mall and more: What to expect in 2023

Whether it was your best year yet or one you're ready to say good riddance to, 2022 is on its way out and it's time to look ahead.

The new year always brings with it much uncertainty (Hello, inflation!), but it's not all a mystery. For instance, there are some events and developments we can pencil in on our calendars, like the rollout of Nassau County's newest area code and the election of a new county executive in Suffolk for the first time in 12 years.

We also can expect the second trial in the death of Thomas Valva, this time Angela Pollina, who also was charged with murder in the boy's death. Wegmans plans to break ground on its first Long Island store. And for Long Island Rail Road commuters, the MTA anticipates completing its $600 million improvement project in Penn Station.

Plus, there's an exciting lineup of concerts and festivals, and business and restaurant openings planned. Here's a preview of what's in store for 2023.

January

The two surrendered separately in September to begin serving federal prison time after their 2019 convictions in a bribery case connected to their longtime family friend, Harendra Singh.

The Manganos maintain their innocence. A Manhattan federal appeals court recently ordered their attorneys to file appeal paperwork by Jan. 25.

Linda Mangano, 59, is serving her 15-month sentence in a minimum-security satellite camp in Danbury, Connecticut. Bureau of Prison records show she is due for release in October. Edward Mangano, 60, is serving his 12-year-sentence at the Massachusetts facility Federal Medical Center, Devens. –Bridget Murphy

Retail licenses are initially only available to New Yorkers who were convicted of — or are related to someone convicted of — a marijuana-related offense. The state planned to secure retail spaces for these licensees as a way to give them a leg up before the industry is opened up to other businesses. But the state only identified one dispensary location in Harlem.

In late 2022, regulators announced that the licensees may find their own locations. When shops open on the Island will depend on how quickly the licensees can find storefronts. –Sarina Trangle

Hochul has made it clear in dozens of vetoes since she was elected Nov. 8 that she is willing to cut spending sought by the Legislature as the state enters an increasingly uncertain fiscal year. She proposed record spending in the current 2022-23 budget, but that budget adopted in April expires March 31. It was her first budget.

She rose from lieutenant governor to chief executive in August 2021, when then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo resigned amid accusations of sexual harassment. But an elected governor can potentially exercise more clout when negotiating with legislative leaders. –Michael Gormley

The company could then sell much of the site piecemeal for uses such as medical offices and assisted living. Opponents of the plan have said development would bring traffic congestion to area roads and threaten environmentally sensitive Stony Brook Harbor, which lies to the northwest. 

There are complications, however. Head of the Harbor Village and a coalition of local residents in early 2022 sued Gyrodyne and Smithtown in Suffolk County Supreme Court to annul town approvals, alleging flaws in its environmental review. And in November, Peconic Land Trust said it was exploring a bid to buy and preserve a portion of the Gyrodyne site. –Nicholas Spangler

The odds that temperatures for much of the East Coast, from the northern tip of South Carolina to Maine, will be warmer than usual are 40% to 50%, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

There are equal chances, however, of precipitation running around average or above or below, it said.

The La Nina weather system arises when the trade winds push “warm water back into the western Pacific,” which in turn raises the deeper and thus colder waters to the surface in the eastern Pacific, NOAA says.

The opposite weather pattern, El Nino, occurs when slower trade winds instead push warmer water on the sea’s surface east, to South America’s coast. –Joan Gralla

Lent, 70, retired on Nov. 10 after nine years in office. She told Newsday she planned to move out of state. Lent had been deputy town clerk until 2013, when she won an election for her first term as clerk. She subsequently won two more four-year terms, in 2017 and 2021. Deputy Town Clerk Lauren Thoden is the interim clerk until a new one is elected. –Carl MacGowan

Ward Melville High School senior Amber Luo finished third in the 2022 competition, where she won $150,000 and was named one of the nation's top young scientists. Regeneron selections are based on research skills, academics, innovation and promise as scientists. –Joie Tyrell

In August, the bluetongue virus was detected in two deer found dead in the state, including one in Southampton, the DEC said. The hemorrhagic virus, called bluetongue for one of its most obvious symptoms and spread by tiny midges that die in the first frost, usually kills deer swiftly, but the DEC says there is zero evidence this disease can infect people. Still, hunters long have been advised to cook game to 165 degrees Fahrenheit to kill parasites or any infectious agents. –Joan Gralla

February

Pollina has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child in connection with Thomas’ death and the alleged abuse of Thomas and his older brother Anthony, then 10.

Prosecutors have alleged that Pollina and Valva, who was convicted at trial on the same charges in November, forced Thomas to sleep in the unheated garage of their Center Moriches home when the low temperature was 19 degrees. Thomas died from hypothermia. –Nicole Fuller 

Early 2023

The German discount grocer is building a 35,827-square-foot store at 450 Commack Rd. in Deer Park that will be its first new construction and largest store on Long Island, spokesman Will Harwood said.

Lidl entered the Long Island market in January 2019, when the retailer’s U.S. arm finalized its purchase from Bethpage-based Best Market of 27 stores, including all 24 on the Island, for an undisclosed price. The discounter converted most Best Markets to the Lidl name, but it also closed a few and opened new Lidl stores. –Tory N. Parrish

December, January and February are typically the months where flu circulation is at its highest. But this year, cases started appearing as early as September and October, and health officials stepped up their annual public awareness campaigns urging people to get their flu shots. 

By the end of October, flu cases on Long Island were seven times higher than for the same time period in the previous 12 years.

Add to that an unpredictable COVID-19 path through the winter months and an uptick in cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and you have what officials believe could be a “tripledemic” of potentially serious illnesses. Experts speculate that these viruses, which are commonly seen every year, were suppressed during the early years of the pandemic through mitigation efforts such as social distancing and wearing masks. 

Statistics also show that fewer people received their flu shots in the fall and not many people have received the updated COVID-19 booster shot, which provides better protection against the newest variants. Efforts to boost those vaccination rates will continue through the early months of 2023. 

In 2023, federal health officials are expected to further discuss whether COVID-19 vaccine booster shots will be updated and recommended on an annual basis, similar to the way annual flu shots are administered. In addition, several major pharmaceutical firms are looking into development of a dual COVID-19/flu shot. –Lisa Colangelo

Ratings are required by federal education law and are used to identify schools that fall in the bottom 5% academically or that fail to meet scholastic standards in other ways. Designations are based on state test scores, high school graduation rates, student attendance and other criteria. 

In 2020, identifications of low-performing schools were temporarily frozen for the 61 schools and 34 districts then listed in Nassau and Suffolk counties. State education officials told Newsday on Nov. 9 that revised preliminary ratings would be issued “in early 2023, with final determinations announced in the following weeks.” –John Hildebrand

A jury in April 2022 convicted Leniz Escobar, then 22, of racketeering and murder in aid of racketeering following a quadruple slaying in the woods of Central Islip five years earlier. Prosecutors argued at trial that she was both the “bait” that lured four young men who died to the scene and a “mastermind” who helped plot the crime.

Escobar’s lawyers have argued for a new trial, saying in part that a post-trial disclosure from the prosecution shows one of the government’s cooperating witnesses lied during part of his testimony. –Bridget Murphy
 

The Huntington shop will be a 2,400-square-foot eatery at 350 Walt Whitman Rd. in the Huntington Shopping Center, where an approximately $75 million redevelopment is underway. The Westbury store will be in a 2,600-square-foot space at 1256 Old Country Rd. in Westbury Plaza. Just Salad and incoming Mediterranean restaurant Cava will be splitting the space vacated by a 5,000-square-foot, free-standing California Pizza Kitchen restaurant in 2019, said Eric Davidson, spokesman for Regency Centers Corp., the Jacksonville, Florida-based operator of the shopping center. (Cava will open in January.)

The Just Salad at Commack Marketplace will be located at 6040 Jericho Tpke., in a 2,200-square-foot unit vacated last February by a longtime dentist’s office, Wisdom Tooth of Commack, said Marc Kemp, a principal at Woodmere-based real estate developer Basser-Kaufman, which owns the Commack shopping center.

Just Salad sells salads, wraps, warm bowls and other items at its eateries. The chain has waste reduction initiatives, including a reusable bowl program and bagless pickup and checkout, and a lower-carbon menu category. Founded in 2006, Just Salad has more than 60 eateries in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Dubai. –Tory N. Parrish

The town began renovating Byron Lake Park in Sayville in September, which includes rebuilding the entire pool area with the addition of a zero-entry pool, slide and kiddie pool with a spray pad. The pool buildings also are under construction to make them ADA accessible. The second leg of the project will begin in early 2023. The town plans to install new bulkheading around the lake and island, along with draining structure improvements to improve water flow. This is expected to be finished by the summer. –Brinley Hineman

The store will be the lingerie retailer’s first on Long Island, said Imani Goldman, spokeswoman for Savage X Fenty. Founded by singer Rihanna as an online brand in 2018, Savage X Fenty now has five brick-and-mortar stores and is planning six more. –Tory N. Parrish

Municipal officials and business leaders have said sewers would provide environmental and economic benefits for the hamlet, enabling restaurants to add more tables, or developers to build second-floor apartments over retail spaces.

Workers in 2020 laid a sewer line under Lake Avenue, but with no treatment plant hookup, it was derided by some as “a sewer main to nowhere.” –Nicholas Spangler

Islip also  was to embark on another dredging project  in which crews will dredge the Brown’s River East and Brown’s River West marinas. Silt and debris has settled in the 167 boat slips, which the town said makes it difficult for boaters to use. The dredging project will be completed in early 2023 before boating season. –Brinley Hineman

March

Spring

The new store will occupy 25,901 square feet of space created by the vacancies of three former tenants, including a 20,500-square-foot Modell’s Sporting Goods.

The rest of Burlington’s space will come from a 3,500-square-foot vacancy created by America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglasses relocating in the shopping center and some of the space, 1,900 square feet, from the former Danice women’s clothing store, said Chris Ostrowski, spokesman for Kimco Realty Corp., the Jericho-based owner of Meadowbrook Commons. –Tory N. Parrish

Catholic Health’s Family Care Center at Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre is scheduled to start seeing patients by late spring. The 16,000-square-foot medical office building will be the home of Mercy’s women’s and children’s services. It received a $1.3 million grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation. 

The Hospital for Special Surgery will open its new Town of Southampton practice in late spring. The 2,800-square-foot office in the hamlet of Water Mill will offer orthopedics, sports medicine, rehabilitation and pain management, as well as digital X-rays. The HSS Rehab Network, which includes private physical and occupational therapy practices, also expects to open several offices on Long Island in 2023, adding to its lineup of 48 practices on the Island. –Maura McDermott

The award of a construction contract is also expected in the spring to resurface approximately 40 lane miles of the Northern State Parkway between Wolf Hill Road (Exit 41) and the eastern terminus at state Routes 347/454. –Lorena Mongelli

April

Keep an eye on the number of homes on the market. If the supply of for-sale homes doesn’t increase from winter 2022’s record lows, homebuyers may have longer to wait for relief on prices. –Jonathan LaMantia

May

June 

Summer

The German discount grocer, which has 10 stores on Long Island, will open three more supermarkets on the Island in 2023, said Chris Daniels, vice president for Aldi’s South Windsor Division. 

An Aldi will open at 280 Peninsula Blvd. in Hempstead Village Commons in early summer, Daniels said. The store will take an approximately 24,000-square-foot space that a Staples vacated in November, said Marc Kemp, a principal at Woodmere-based real estate developer Basser-Kaufman, which owns the shopping center.

Also, Manhasset-based PX4 Development was approved for a zoning change by the Town of Islip but still needs site plan approval to redevelop the former Central Islip Psychiatric Center property for retail businesses and housing for seniors, disabled veterans and autistic people that would total 150,000 square feet, including a 20,259-square-foot Aldi. The site, which previously housed a New York Institute of Technology campus, is at the southwest corner of Carleton Avenue and South Research Place. The store will open next fall, Daniels said.

Also, a new 21,543-square-foot Aldi is planned for a former Mattress Firm space at 85 North Country Rd. (Route 25A) in Crossroads Plaza in Rocky Point. The store will open in the summer, Daniels said. –Tory N. Parrish

George Gorman, Long Island regional director, New York State Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, for one, is increasing safeguards. 

“We are purchasing five new drones for ocean surveillance, and we will be training an additional 12 staff members, including lifeguard and park police, to operate the drones,” he said.

The imperative of safeguarding swimmers and surfers, an increasingly common problem along the Eastern Seaboard as research shows sharks native to southern waters are ranging farther north, led a Maine law professor to propose creating a New England “shark council” to plot strategies — and add electromagnetic barriers to keep sharks well offshore.

“However, there is currently no evidence that sharks are spending more time near shore as a result of warming waters,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. –Joan Gralla

Catholic Health will launch its first walk-in clinic outside of a hospital by early summer. The new Catholic Health Ambulatory & Urgent Care also will provide primary care, women’s health, behavioral health, cardiology, neurosciences and orthopedics treatment in a 63,000-square-foot “medical mall,” the Rockville Centre-based health care system said. 

Northwell Health’s new $4.3 million dollar Center for Genomic Medicine at The Center for Advanced Medicine, part of the Northwell Health Cancer Institute, will open in early summer. The 3,200-square-foot center will contribute to cancer clinical care, clinical trials and cancer research. A new clinical molecular diagnostics laboratory will conduct genomic profiling to provide targeted therapy intended to improve the accuracy of patients’ cancer prognosis and diagnosis. –Maura McDermott

September

Mount Sinai South Nassau in Oceanside is adding new equipment to improve the diagnosis and treatment of stroke, vascular disease and other life-threatening conditions. The hospital’s interventional radiology suite’s new apparatus, called a biplane 3D imaging system, creates detailed three-dimensional images that help radiologists perform minimally invasive procedures. –Maura McDermott

October

“The proposed opening date is October 2023,” he said. The Modell’s was at 1019 Montauk Hwy. –Tory N. Parrish

Late 2023

While no Republicans have publicly declared their intent to run for the county’s top office, Democrat Dave Calone, a venture capitalist and a former federal and state prosecutor, announced his candidacy in July. 

Bellone, who has not publicly said what he will do after his term is up, has faced a tenure marked by multiple crises, including reducing an inherited deficit, the response in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, the COVID-19 pandemic and most recently a crippling cyberattack on county government.

Meanwhile both parties will be jockeying for control of the 18-seat County Legislature — where Republicans took an 11-7 lead on the board in 2021 for the first time in 16 years. All 19 seats of the Nassau County Legislature will be up as well. –Vera Chinese

The store will occupy the 42,978-square-foot, first-floor space of a former two-level J.C. Penney, said Peter Hans, planning director for the Smithtown Planning Department.

Primark opened its first Long Island store and 14th in the United States in Roosevelt Field in Garden City in November. The retailer also has a Long Island store planned for Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, but declined to say when the store will open.

Founded in 1969, Primark stores sell adult and children’s clothes, as well as beauty products and home goods, at discounted prices. –Tory N. Parrish

The labor commissioner has ordered that the OT threshold over the next decade go from the current 60 hours per week before time-and-a-half pay kicks in to 40 hours. The first reduction — to 56 hours — starts on Jan. 1, 2024. –James T. Madore

Sometime in 2023

The Syosset-based developer is awaiting building and rezoning approvals from the town of Islip to begin redeveloping the mall as a shopping center. Whole Foods is among the grocers considering opening a store on the property after it is redeveloped, and a Starbucks is planned there.

Blumenfeld expects redevelopment work on the mall to begin in the spring, and it should take about two years to complete, said Cohen.

Under the name BDG Sun-Vet LLC, Blumenfeld submitted a proposal to the town that includes demolishing sections of the mall. The property would be reduced in size by 42%, from 282,000 to 163,000 square feet, but that would include six new out-parcels.

Built in 1973, the main mall building would be converted to a 134,000-square-foot shopping center with seven tenants: an anchor grocery store occupying 40,000 square feet, a 58,000-square-foot anchor, a 26,000-square-foot store, and four small tenants ranging from 2,000 to 4,000 square feet.

The six new out-parcels would have seven buildings: three banks, totaling 12,000 square feet, with drive-thru lanes; a 3,500-square-foot sit-down restaurant with 100 seats; a 2,845-square-foot fast-food restaurant with 74 seats and a drive-thru lane, the 1,512-square-foot Starbucks, and a 7,000-square-foot retail and medical/dental building.

Blumenfeld also is requesting a change of zoning for the mall — from the current split-zoned Business 3 and Industrial Corridor District to just Business 3. –Tory N. Parrish

The Wegmans would be located in the 28-acre DSW Plaza at Lake Grove at the corner of Middle Country and Moriches roads.

Prestige will continue to own and operate the rest of the shopping center. Prestige has received Lake Grove’s planning board, zoning board of appeals and village board approvals for the grocery store’s construction, but it still needs to submit applications for building permits, said Kara Haufler, village clerk.

The property sale hasn’t closed yet because the project is awaiting subdivision approvals, too, said Jerry Welkis, president of Welco Realty Inc., the New Rochelle-based real estate firm that represented Prestige in the Wegmans deal. –Tory N. Parrish

Some of the projects are expected to win approvals from town governments and tax breaks from the Island’s eight industrial development agencies in 2023. Others, facing community opposition and a possible recession, may never be built. –James T. Madore

Founded in 2009, U.K.-based retailer Wren designs, manufactures and delivers kitchens. After entering the U.S. market in 2020, Wren now has six U.S. stores, including two on Long Island — in Levittown and Selden. –Tory N. Parrish