Northwell's new center in downtown Huntington focuses on women's health, primary care

The plan started out as an effort to improve a neglected corner just east of downtown Huntington but morphed into a yearslong standoff between historians and a developer.

Now after seven years, the new $10 million Northwell Health building at the corner of Main Street and Park Avenue is open for business and is poised to take care of generations of women. The 10,000-square-foot multidisciplinary practice will provide both primary care services as well as multispecialty care for women. The facility will include four primary care doctors, part of Northwell Health Physician Partners.

“For decades there has been a disparity in women’s health,” said Dr. Nick Fitterman, executive director of Huntington Hospital. “This new state-of-the-art facility will close that gap and improve the health care afforded to women in Huntington, while also providing much needed access to primary care to everyone in the surrounding community.”

But getting to this point was an odyssey for Deer Park-based developer Dominick Mavellia, the building’s landlord.

He started plans to develop the corner in 2015. His first proposal was for two buildings on the 1.06-acre lot, then occupied by a closed gas station and an operating deli. But the proposal was promptly rejected by local historians who opposed the size and look of Mavellia’s plan.

The parcel is in the Old Huntington Green Historic District, and also is where Platts Tavern once stood. The tavern, a meeting place early in the nation’s founding, stood on the site where at one point George Washington paid a visit to thank volunteers for the war effort.

“What Dominick was proposing just didn’t fit the community,” Paul E. Warburgh, president of Old Huntington Green Inc., a local civic group, said.

A battle ensued. The Huntington Town Board did not vote on a zoning change application because it did not have enough votes to pass. Meanwhile, Mavellia used the site as a food pantry while he, the town and historians figured out a plan. Eventually a compromise was reached.

Mavellia conceded to some of the historians' request and built one building instead of two.

“I’m proud of the building and that we were able to capture the historic nature of the property and period,” Mavellia said. “We went through certain challenges but we were able to achieve that goal."

Warburgh said he’s still not pleased, but concedes that the greater good it offers for women’s health outweighs aesthetic concerns.

“Health issues are more important than building size and design,” Warburgh said.

Stephanie Bernier, vice president of Regional Ambulatory Operations for Northwell Health, said the facility's benefits are numerous.

“It’s patient-centered; everybody that works on the team is just so connected and on the same page,” she said. “That translates when the patients come in.”

Town Supervisor Ed Smyth said the building is a symbol of a local property owner willing to invest in Huntington’s economy and work with the neighboring community to revitalize the historic downtown.

“It complements services available at one of the best hospitals in the country, and vastly improves neighborhood aesthetics, reversing the impact of the longtime vacant eyesore that once stood there symbolizing decades of neglect.”