$400M Mastic Beach plan to revitalize downtown with housing, restaurants, shops unveiled

Brookhaven Town and a Jericho developer are proposing a plan to build about 600 homes in downtown Mastic Beach and add tens of thousands of square footage for shops and restaurants as part of a $400-500 million effort to redevelop the hamlet's blighted business district.

The plan, which will require multiple zoning changes and other approvals by the Brookhaven Town Board, was unveiled Thursday night to a crowd of about 800 people who jammed into an auditorium at William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach.

Steven Dubb, principal of the Beechwood Organization, which was tapped by Brookhaven two years ago to serve as the project's master developer, outlined a plan involving as many as 140 properties on 37 acres in a triangle-shaped area along Neighborhood and Commack roads and Doris Drive. The idea is to turn that half-mile stretch into a modern downtown with upper-floor apartments topping ground-level stores, condominiums, town houses, parking garages, and upgraded streets, sidewalks and stormwater drains, he said.

Brookhaven officials and Mastic Beach civic leaders have said they see the project as the former village's best bet to end decades of downtown deterioration and reverse the hamlet's declining economic fortunes.

In an interview before the meeting, Dubb said the plan called for construction of about 600 new homes, including town houses and rental apartments, and a total of 130,000 square feet of retail space, with an architectural design evoking “Main Street, community-style retail … what you’d see in Patchogue or Westhampton Beach.”

The plan incorporates ideas and suggestions from residents and shopkeepers at dozens of meetings with Mastic Beach civic and business groups, Dubb said.

“The good thing is the vast majority of people support this project," he said. "Most people understand the idea that this area needs investment."

Decades of downtown deterioration

Many in the audience at Thursday's meeting applauded as Beechwood and Brookhaven officials described the plan.

Efforts to redevelop Mastic Beach stretch back nearly 20 years as Brookhaven officials pitched land-use plans and downtown revitalization proposals that mostly languished. 

Frustration with what some residents saw as the town's lack of attention to boarded-up storefronts and vacant houses led to a 2010 vote to form an incorporated village, giving homeowners the chance to launch their own community revitalization efforts.

But the village became bogged down in economic and political turmoil before residents voted to disband and the village shut its doors in December 2017.

Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico, then a town councilman, launched efforts to clean up the hamlet and seek a master developer in 2018.

Panico, a Mastic Beach native, said Wednesday the plan could be downsized if environmental studies show the area can't support the number of homes proposed by Beechwood. But he said the project will inject a needed economic jolt into the hamlet of about 15,000 people. 

“It’s a community that’s a waterfront community that’s never reached its true potential,” Panico said. “Mastic Beach is an area whose time has come.”

Traffic concerns raised

Former Village Mayor Maura Spery said Tuesday she welcomes redevelopment after years of stagnation in the downtown. Mastic Beach, she said, needs more food options, noting the few current offerings include a pizzeria and a sandwich shop.

“I’m happy that something is being done because I'm not happy with what’s there now, and I would like to have someplace to brunch. I'd like to have someone wait on me,” said Spery, president of the nonprofit Mastic Beach Conservancy, an environmental group seeking to develop hiking trails and kayaking in the hamlet's Violet Cove waterfront area.

She said the addition of hundreds of housing units could be a concern, but she would not block the project. Rather, town and Beechwood officials need to improve traffic access, she said.

At Thursday's meeting, Tya Emanuel, 46, said she worried the project will force her to move from the house where she has lived for eight years. She later told a reporter she has refused offers from Beechwood to buy her two-story, four-bedroom home.

"I get it, it's great. Shops, stores," she told officials during the forum. "How is it going to benefit me?"

Dubb told Newsday the new retail shops could include restaurants, coffee shops, dry cleaners, barbers and ice cream parlors, adding an existing bait and tackle shop will remain.

Also set to remain are the Mastic Beach Ambulance Co., which opened its Neighborhood Road headquarters in 2018, and a branch of the Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library that opened last year in the former Village Hall, Dubb said.

The library will get a new park, and a community center also is part of the plan, Dubb said.

$400M in construction costs 

Construction is expected to cost about $100 million for infrastructure such as streets, sidewalks and "storm-resistant utilities," Dubb said, adding construction costs are expected to be $300 million to $400 million for housing and retail.

About 2,300 parking spaces will be added, including about 1,092 spaces in parking garages that will be obscured from street views by other construction, Dubb said.

Housing will be a mix of rentals and owner-occupied units, 20% of which will be classified as affordable, with prices based on Long Island's median household income — currently $114,260, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 

He said it's too soon to determine rents and sale prices, but most would be similar to other housing options in the area.

Dubb said he expected the housing to appeal to empty-nesters and retirees eager for "low-maintenance" homes, and young people “who are mostly living in their parents' basements.”

Rich Murdocco, an adjunct professor of planning at Stony Brook University, said Mastic Beach will need to craft a new identity if it is to attract visitors, “and that’s going to take time.”

For redevelopment to succeed, he said, residents will need to show unwavering support for the plan.

“The biggest thing is community buy-in," Murdocco said. "The community is tired. They want a new flavor of ice cream.”

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.