North Bellport can fund affordable housing, park and LIRR station upgrades with $4.5M from NYS

The small Brookhaven Town hamlet of North Bellport can fund more affordable housing and upgrades to a park and Long Island Rail Road station after state officials awarded $4.5 million in grants to revitalize the downtown.

Community leaders and Brookhaven officials say the funding will help jump-start plans to redevelop the hamlet's business district, which lacks a supermarket and a bank, and add basketball and pickleball courts to Robert Rowley Park.

The aid to North Bellport was among nearly $19 million in economic development grants the state awarded to projects on Long Island, including for revitalization efforts in Mineola Village and Kings Park, state officials announced Tuesday.

The grants are part of the state's Downtown Revitalization Initiative and NY Forward programs, both aimed at rebuilding or encouraging economic redevelopment in small towns and villages across the state.

In North Bellport, funding includes $1.3 million for sidewalk and lighting improvements, $1.25 million for 32 affordable houses with accessory apartments, $345,152 to refurbish Robert Rowley Park and $200,000 for train station landscaping, state officials said in a news release.

“We’re very happy," said Joann Neal, co-chair of the Greater Bellport Coalition, a civic group that has spent years pressing for state funding. “I feel like the 53 years I’ve been living in Bellport, this is really a very uplifting period.”

Brookhaven Councilman Michael Loguercio said in a phone interview the state funding will provide seed money that would otherwise be unavailable to a relatively low-income community like North Bellport. The median household income in North Bellport was $99,551 from 2019-2023, compared to $128,329 across Suffolk County during that period, according to U.S. Census figures.

“It is a good start, because it’s going to go to different organizations to build housing, to bring in business, to bring in jobs, to bring in tax revenue," Loguercio said.

Kings Park boost

In Kings Park, the state awarded $9.7 million to fund a total of eight projects, state officials said. Highlights include $4.5 million for streetscape and pedestrian improvements on Main Street, $900,000 for a three-story mixed-use development on Main Street and more than $1.4 million to convert open space and an underutilized parking lot into a public park.

Town of Smithtown officials last year approved a master plan for Kings Park designed to promote a more walkable downtown and mixed-use development through a new special zoning district.

Tony Tanzi, president of the Kings Park Chamber of Commerce, said the state funding and ongoing sewer expansion "will lead to a more vibrant, more walkable, more pedestrian-friendly downtown."

"It's going to create a hub that will make it so that downtown is a more enticing area to come and spend time," Tanzi said. 

Smithtown spokeswoman Nicole Garguilo said the plans “will give it a much-needed face-lift.”

Mineola projects

In Mineola, state officials approved a total of $4.5 million for seven projects in the village's ongoing downtown revamp. The projects include plans to bury utility lines, upgrade building facades, add a new public mural and launch downtown beautification.

Up to $1 million would redevelop a building at 199 Jericho Tpke. with 30 apartments, including 15 affordable units, and 2,685 square feet of retail space. The plans call for preserving a historic bank facade and adding parking, trees and sidewalk pavers, officials said.

Mineola Mayor Paul Pereira said the improvements to Second and Main streets could be the “final piece” of a long-term plan to invigorate the downtown. Plans call for installing posts to support temporary road closures, removing utility poles and new landscaping, he said.

“We’re looking to make Second Street and Main Street the heartbeat of our downtown,” he said. “That’s really when you’ll really see the downtown revitalization turn a corner, and people are going to see what the vision had been.”

With Joshua Needelman and Jean-Paul Salamanca

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.