More rentals good for Patchogue
Rendering of a proposed apartment building at West Main Street and North Ocean Avenue in Patchogue. Credit: Downtown Patchogue Redevelopers LLC.
Humming downtowns and rental housing are two of Long Island's biggest needs. The Village of Patchogue is well on its way to offering both.
Suddenly, though, fear of rentals is threatening the keystone of its ongoing redevelopment. Given the need for thousands more rental units Islandwide, the developer's need to add 51 year-round apartments instead of 100 or so transient hotel rooms must not be allowed to scuttle this project.
The success of Patchogue's Four Corners project is crucial, not only to the local businesses that need the extra customers, but also to the region. Every downtown revitalization is one more step toward stopping our crippling drain of residents 18 to 34 years old. If we can't reverse that, our future is bleak.
Patchogue has already made real progress in overcoming a decline caused by the rise of shopping malls and the departure of Brookhaven Town Hall. Despite the resulting loss of business, one Patchogue landmark, Swezey's Department Store, stayed at the Four Corners. When it moved farther west in the village a decade ago, leaving an aching absence at the village's key intersection, that capped the decline.
Since then, Mayor Paul Pontieri and the village board have been putting together key pieces: the rebuilding of the Patchogue Theatre, which draws diners to village restaurants; the addition of 80 homes at Copper Beech Village, near the railroad station, and now, the first tenants in 45 rental units for artists. But the Four Corners remained unresolved.
There was a flurry of hope in 2006, when a national boutique hotel chain proposed a hotel, plus retail, offices and condos. That plan fell apart. Then a local developer, Tritec Real Estate, offered a plan for a building up to nine stories tall, including a hotel and retail on the ground floor, and rental apartments close by. When Pontieri and Tritec rolled it out in 2008, the reception was overwhelmingly positive.
But none of the hotel operators could get financing. So in the corner building where the hotel was to have been - now down to five stories - they want to put 51 apartments, still with retail on the ground floor. Added to the other apartments in nearby streets, that would bring the project's total to 291 units. Some people were disappointed by the loss of the hotel, frightened by the addition of 51 apartments - or both.
Not everyone is concerned. Young people - those not yet ready for a house but more than ready for downtown living - still like it. So do some older village residents who are itching to give up larger homes for an apartment.
If this plan dies, Pontieri fears it will take another decade to revive the Four Corners, and without the foot traffic that this project could bring, Patchogue's revitalization could stall. The village board is expected to vote on it Thursday evening. On that decision depends not only the prosperity of the village itself, but also the future of the region's long, slow march toward creating the array of downtowns and rentals that will determine whether the Island thrives or withers.
