Smithtown seeking master developer to turn area near LIRR station to apartments, offices, retail

Where small commercial buildings and mostly empty parking lots sit near downtown Smithtown's Long Island Rail Road station, town officials want to see new apartments, offices and retail.

An area makeover could grow rail ridership, "feed the downtown" with new residents and shoppers and "help it to thrive," said Councilman Tom McCarthy, who works closely with municipal planners on land use issues. Some of the area's roughly dozen properties, including a former waste transfer station and closed bowling alley, are "a mess," he said. "We're looking to clean up."

Officials last week issued a request for qualifications for a master developer to write a transit-oriented development plan for the area and acquire properties for redevelopment. The request leaves open the project's scale and the mix of potential uses, but officials' vision is laid out in town comprehensive plan documents.

A draft, expected to be finalized this summer, recommends changing zoning around the train tracks to allow mixed-use buildings as tall as 45 feet or four stories, up from the current 35 feet or two-and-a-half stories. The draft also floats ideas like moving a street near the tracks to accommodate development, or converting another for pedestrian use. 

 "There has been incredible interest" from developers, said Ulli Schaeperkoetter, a senior account clerk in the town's purchasing department. Responses are due May 24. 

The target area includes privately and publicly owned parcels from the tracks south to Manor Road and east to Landing Avenue. It includes an MTA parking lot south of the tracks; parcels north of the tracks with the closed bowling alley and former waste transfer station could also be included.

Since the early 2000s, Long Island municipalities have pursued transit-oriented development in Mineola, Ronkonkoma, Farmingdale and elsewhere, using walkability and proximity to transit as selling points.

In an email, MTA spokesman David Steckel said the agency was "committed to working with local communities throughout our operating territory to advance transit-oriented development. Thoughtful planning around MTA stations for new housing, retail amenities and pedestrian improvements makes communities more attractive and economically healthy and can reduce the growth of automobile use."

Ridership numbers for Smithtown were unavailable, but a 2015 town planning document estimated only 38% of parking spaces in Smithtown’s two LIRR lots got used. An MTA ridership study, using data compiled from 2012 to 2014, counted 904 weekday passengers getting on and off; in Ronkonkoma, Long Island’s busiest LIRR station, where transit-oriented development is underway, it counted 15,021.

Smithtown Chamber of Commerce president Ayman Awad said property acquisition could be difficult because piecemeal redevelopment was already underway, with sale of the bowling alley pending, but that planned downtown sewers and apartments on Main Street could prime further growth. 

Eric Alexander, executive director of the smart growth group Vision Long Island, said redevelopment could succeed. More than 85% of the town’s housing stock is single-family detached homes, leaving a “radically underserved” demographic of potential residents looking for other forms of housing like apartments, he said. 

“Quality of life is high, there’s a lot of parks, public safety is a premium,” and post-pandemic work arrangements mean some people may be willing to accept longer commutes if they only have to go into work two or three days a week, he said. "There is an opportunity to grow.”

Michael Florio, CEO of trade group Long Island Builders Institute, said the planned sewers made the job feasible and that many developers were likely to compete for it. “We all understand the need to increase the housing stock… the areas around the train stations make sense to do that if they have the necessary infrastructure.”