Proposed senior living facility at East Islip bowling alley draws opposition
A developer has proposed a senior living facility at the East Islip Lanes bowling alley, seen here. Credit: Newsday / Steve Pfost
A proposed senior living facility on the site of a long-standing bowling alley in East Islip is drawing opposition from nearby residents who have launched a petition as a preemptive strike against the project.
Developer Benchmark Senior Living said it wants to build a 90-unit facility for seniors at the East Islip Lanes property on East Main Street. The proposed center would include assisted living and memory care facilities, Benchmark spokesman David Levesque said last week.
The Massachusetts-based operator has several facilities on Long Island, including in Woodbury and Smithtown.
Plans are still in the early stages and the developer hasn’t yet filed an application with Islip Town, Levesque said. The sale isn't finalized and could take up to two years, he added.
If the proposal is approved by the town, Benchmark would need a zoning change from commercial to residential.
East Islip Lanes opened in 1960 and has served as a cornerstone of community functions for decades. Michael Gibiser, an owner, declined to speak with Newsday about his business, including plans to sell and close the bowling alley or reopen elsewhere. Property records show that Rudolph Gibiser sold the land in 1996 to AAA Alley Associates Inc., a corporation formed in 1989. The corporation in 2016 then made an interfamily transfer.
Benchmark Senior Living's plan to build a senior living facility on the bowling alley site is in its early stages, the developer said. Credit: Benchmark Senior Living
Benchmark on Tuesday night held a virtual community meeting to discuss the proposal. Nearly 60 residents attended the meeting. Close to a dozen raised concerns about infrastructure, service and traffic congestion.
Benchmark representatives said they were gathering community feedback to inform them as they move forward with the project.
"There is a tremendous need in this area for housing for the elderly," said representative Eric Gardner. "Seniors deserve to have a choice of housing ... These are everybody’s moms and dads that [already] live in the community."
Residents have formed a Facebook group and have launched a petition in opposition to the proposal. More than 1,000 people signed the petition, which called the senior living facility "an insult to East Islip."
Petition organizer Krissy Dworkin told Newsday last week she’s concerned about traffic congestion. She said the bowling alley has been a part of the landscape for many years and the facility would strip East Islip of its neighborhood-feel.
"People feel like the bowling alley is part of their family," she said, adding she recently went to the bowling alley with her son, which also played host to many of her own friends' birthday parties when she was growing up.
With Judy Weinberg
Brinley Hineman covers the Town of Hempstead and the City of Long Beach for Newsday. She previously was a reporter in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a West Virginia native.
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