More housing units, offices proposed for Brookhaven's Station Yards

The next stage of the massive Station Yards downtown redevelopment near the Ronkonkoma Long Island Rail Road station is expected to include more than 200 housing units and space for medical offices if it is approved by Brookhaven Town officials, developer Tritec Real Estate said.

Station Yards, parts of which are completed or under construction in a former industrial and retail district north of the LIRR train tracks, has been hailed by local officials and residents as a transformative project that has brought new residents and shoppers to a previously blighted neighborhood.

The $1.2 billion project is being built in phases on 53 acres stretching from Ronkonkoma Avenue east to Mill Road. The first, a 489-unit apartment complex called The Alston, was completed in 2020.

Ronkonkoma-based Tritec is in the midst of building Station Yards' second phase, a mixed-use residential-retail-office complex called The Core.

As part of the second phase, Tritec is proposing 285 additional residential units and 30,000 square feet of medical office space on the west side of Carroll Avenue between Union and Railroad avenues. The Brookhaven Town Board, acting as the planning board, will hold a public hearing at 3 p.m. Thursday to consider the proposal.

Tritec declined to comment on the proposal.

Construction at Station Yards is about 50% complete. So far, Tritec has built more than 1,000 apartments, about 68,419 square feet of retail and 16,500 square feet of offices since the project broke ground in November 2017. Construction is expected to last up to another 10 years.

When Station Yards is finished, it is expected to have up to 1,450 apartments, 195,000 square feet of retail and 360,000 square feet of office space, Newsday has previously reported.

Tritec also has built parking garages and surface parking areas with a total of more than 2,000 stalls as part of the project, Tritec spokesman Chris Kelly said in an email.

The project does not affect a Suffolk County parking lot on the south side of the railroad tracks that is used primarily by LIRR commuters.

Station Yards already has transformed the area, Ronkonkoma Chamber of Commerce president Michael DelRosso said.

The lifelong Ronkonkoma resident said he remembers the area around the train station as having "a dirty parking lot" and vacant buildings that scared off potential visitors and customers.

"It looked like garbage before," he said Monday in a phone interview.

Now, he said, sales data shows Station Yards has become a hit with local shoppers. 

Restaurants such as Tap Room and Vespa Italian Kitchen & Cocktails typically are "mobbed" with diners, DelRosso said.

“I think it’s great for the community. I love it,” he said. “Everybody’s going there from Ronkonkoma and Holbrook and Holtsville.”

The Core's retail section also includes local and national brands such as FourLeaf Federal Credit Union, Catholic Health, Toast Coffee and Kitchen, Lucharitos Tex-Mex, Cornucopia Natural Foods, the Tap Room restaurant, speakeasy-style cocktail bar Artemis and Great South Bay Brewery. Ben & Jerry's ice cream opened a store at Station Yards last month.

Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico said Monday in a phone interview a project the size of Station Yards is "certainly not appropriate everywhere in the Town of Brookhaven." But he said the Tritec project has received "very positive feedback” from Ronkonkoma civic leaders and residents.

“It’s become Suffolk County’s hub,” Panico said. “It has transformed a largely vacant and listless, abandoned warehouse district into a vibrant, mixed-use district where people come to enjoy restaurants, people come to live and people come to enjoy a variety of businesses.”

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.