Loss of Stony Brook's Calverton food incubator hurts production at many small Suffolk County businesses

The past five weeks have been "crippling" for the business of John Tolson, co-owner of Sugar Sweet Treats in Calverton.

The family-run bakery, which supplies cookies, pies and other treats to farmers' markets and retail stores on the East End, was among more than 70 companies that saw their business come to a near grinding halt after an Aug. 10 explosion at Stony Brook University's Food Business Incubator at Calverton

Without use of the shared-use commercial manufacturing kitchen, Tolson estimates his business has lost $50,000 in gross wholesale revenue.

"We're now working 10 times harder to make 25% of our products," said Tolson, whose been using space at the smaller East End Food Institute in Southampton. "We've lost a tremendous amount of money just in the month of August, which is our core month where we make the majority of our money that carries us through the winter."

The explosion in a walk-in oven at the Incubator left one employee injured and caused significant damage to the building's gas and electrical distribution, as well as to the equipment, walls, flooring and ceiling. The damage required university officials to shut down the power and gas lines.

Stony Brook expects to have a partial reopening of the building by the end of September, said Lawrence Zacarese, the university's chief security officer and vice president for enterprise risk management. But there was no immediate time frame for a full reopening of the facility, officials said.

"We take seriously the impact this temporary shutdown is having on the incubator community and repairs, upgrades and improvements are well underway to get the Incubator back up and running safely and as quickly as possible"," Zacarese said. 

As of last week, the combined economic loss for business that relied on the incubator — more than three-quarters of which are women or minority-owned businesses — was $600,000, according to Robert Fonti, co-chairman of the Suffolk County Alliance of Chambers, which is assisting affected companies find alternative locations, as well as supplies, equipment and ingredients.

"There's a lot of different steps that have to happen," said Fonti, who is also organizing a GoFundMe campaign to assist the businesses with their rising financial burdens. 

The cascading effects of the explosion are not limited to profits, officials said. The business' employees, suppliers, local farmers and customers have also been affected, as has local sales tax revenue.

Samantha Sherman, owner of The Hampton Grocer, which sells homemade granola at farm stands and farmers markets throughout the East End, is reliant on the incubator space, particularly as her products are gluten-free.

"My business came to like a screeching halt during one of the busiest times of the year," said Sherman, who was working in the incubator at the time of the explosion. "We're working now with Stony Brook to try to figure out how to get up and running as soon as possible but … it's put me in a really bad position."

Maria Camassa, founder of Lucky Lou’s Gourmet Rice Pudding, which has used the incubator for three years, said she's confident her business would pull through.

"We survived COVID. We survived inflation, recession, the shortage of supplies and labor," said Camassa, which also has been using space at the East End Food Institute. "We weren't sure that we were going to survive this … But I really believe a lot of good is going to come out of this."