Station Yards update: Construction to begin this spring, part of new phase in Ronkonkoma

Construction will start this spring as part of the next stage of Ronkonkoma's $1.2 billion Station Yards project, an executive for the developer said, after Brookhaven Town officials approved hundreds of additional apartments and medical office space. 

The town board, acting as the planning board, voted 7-0 Thursday to approve Tritec Real Estate's plan to add 285 apartments and 30,000 square feet of medical offices in three new buildings on a 6.72-acre parcel on Carroll Avenue between Union and Railroad avenues.

The massive Station Yards development is under construction in a former industrial area on the north side of Long Island Rail Road tracks near the hamlet's train station.

The next phase — Tritec calls it Phase 2C — will be completed in stages over a 27-month period, Tritec executive vice president and partner Jimmy Coughlan said in an interview after the vote.

He said the company is in talks to lease medical offices to a tenant he declined to identify.

Station Yards has been praised by residents and civic leaders for transforming a blighted section of Ronkonkoma by adding hundreds of new apartments, shops and restaurants while creating thousands of construction and retail jobs.

When it is completed in about a decade, 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. 

The development 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. Hundreds more housing units and about a dozen businesses have opened near Hawkins Avenue.

Mostly praise for Phase 2C

Phase 2C received mostly plaudits from the few people who spoke at a hearing before the planning board vote.

The lone Ronkonkoma resident to speak, Christine Giatras, of Carroll Avenue, said she was concerned the new section would generate too much traffic and would displace wildlife.

"I think it's pretty inappropriate," she said, before adding that overall, "I do find that what has been done so far ... is aesthetically pleasing."

Coughlan said he had seen piles of garbage in the area, but "We haven't found any wildlife."

Tritec lawyer John Wagner said traffic would be controlled through measures such as traffic lights.

Joe Squicciarini, business agent of Plumbers Union Local 200, said Station Yards has so far created 4,000 construction jobs, adding Tritec projects are "rivaled by none."

Anthony Confredo, vice president of sales at Maggio Environmental Services, a Suffolk County waste and recycling company, said Station Yards' apartments could help the region's housing crisis.

"It's what the younger generation is looking for," he said. "We need to keep our youth here."

Coughlan said most apartments would be rented at market rates in line with other rentals in the area. The new apartments would have amenities such as a fitness center, private lounges and common areas for cooking, he said.   

Transforming Ronkonkoma

Renderings show four- and five-story buildings on a one-block section on the west side of Carroll Avenue between Union and Railroad avenues.

Medical offices would fill the first floor of a building on Railroad Avenue, with apartments on upper floors, Wagner said. Buildings on Carroll and Union avenues would be exclusively for residences, he said.

Tritec had purchased and demolished buildings occupied by a Tutor Time day care, small businesses and a single-family home to make way for the project, Wagner said.

Station Yards is part of a larger transformation of Ronkonkoma that could eventually include a business complex south of the railroad tracks on parking lots owned by Suffolk County. The county has not announced specific plans for the site.

Islip Town also has announced plans to upgrade the passenger terminal at Long Island MacArthur Airport, which could include a direct connection between the terminal and the Ronkonkoma train station. Islip officials have said they hope to start construction as soon as next year.