Luxury apartments in downtown Bay Shore to be ready to rent in fall, developer says

More than half the luxury apartments planned for the former Touro College campus in downtown Bay Shore will be ready to rent by November, a spokesman for the developer said.

The 418-unit luxury apartment complex, called Shoregate, has been in the works since 2018 and is being built by Tritec, the developer behind other major projects such as the $1 billion Station Yards in Ronkonkoma.

Tritec said the $173 million development will bolster the ongoing revitalization of Bay Shore, providing nearly 900 jobs during construction and, eventually, homes for residents who are projected to spend nearly $13 million annually within the Town of Islip.

The complex will have indoor and outdoor amenities, including fire pits and barbecues, a food-centered retail space, a golf simulator, a pool and pickleball courts, Tritec spokesman Chris Kelly said. 

The amenities and 270 units will open by November, he said. The remaining units are projected to open next year. The development is situated between a Long Island Rail Road train station and Montauk Highway.

Twenty percent, or 84, of those units will be workforce housing for individuals who meet 80% of the Area Median Income, which, on Long Island, is $96,300 for a family of four or $67,450 for a single person. 

The project will include 618 parking spaces, including 58 garage spaces and 91 land-banked spaces. Nearly 70% of the apartments will be studios and one-bedrooms, Kelly said. 

Some residents at a recent Bay Shore Chamber of Commerce meeting expressed concern about how the development will impact parking in the hamlet. 

“Living in that area, I already know that’s not enough parking,” said a woman in the audience. 

“We’ll provide enough for our residents,” responded Tritec representative Kelley Coughlan-Heck.

The Bay Shore School District also has previously raised concerns about the number of multiunit structures approved for the Bay Shore-Brightwaters community.

“If you look at the totality of the units contained within the projects approved by the Town of Islip, there are over 1,000 new apartments being built,” said Bay Shore Superintendent Steven Maloney in a statement. “In general, our enrollment has been steady over the last decade. High-density housing that brings a large influx of new children may challenge the district’s ability to accommodate the additional students within our current school buildings.”

Kelly acknowledged that there have been some community concerns about how the apartments will impact the school district, but he said Tritec projects don’t usually generate many school-age children, adding that the company works with the community to plan developments.

The Bay Shore Chamber of Commerce has embraced Shoregate. President Donna Periconi said the complex is “an important part of Bay Shore’s ongoing renaissance,” and highlighted Tritec’s respect for the hamlet’s history and architecture in planning the development. 

Periconi also said some Bay Shore residents remain opposed to such a large apartment complex in a hamlet still primarily dominated by single-family homes. 

“But Long Island is changing, and Bay Shore must not be left behind,” she said.

By Brianne Ledda

brianne.ledda@newsday.com@brianne_ledda

Brianne Ledda covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.