Station Yards development in Ronkonkoma injects cash, spurring wave of suburban renewal, officials say

The neighborhood around the Ronkonkoma train station had seen better days.

Small stores in the aging hamlet closed or stagnated for decades, affecting even longtime shops like Pete D’Onofrio's pizzeria a few blocks down Union Avenue in Holbrook.

All that changed four years ago, when the first residents started moving into the Alston, a 489-unit apartment complex that had just opened in the megadevelopment now known as Station Yards. 

Sales picked up immediately, said D'Onofrio, owner of Joe's Pizza and Pasta, as Alston residents came in for lunch and dinner, placed orders for delivery and picked up pies and salads. Business at his 46-year-old eatery is "without a doubt" the best it's ever been, he said. 

"More people, more customers. It’s good for the community,” D’Onofrio said. “When you got people around, if you do the right thing, you’re going to be better." 

Station Yards is years from completion, but the $1.2 billion housing and shopping hub is already transforming the formerly rundown area around Ronkonkoma's Long Island Rail Road station, as older shopping plazas undergo makeovers to attract new customers and hundreds of Station Yards residents pump fresh cash into the neighborhood's economy, officials and local business leaders say.

A community's rebirth

Brookhaven Town officials liken Station Yards' impact to Patchogue's downtown revitalization, which added more than 600 apartments and more than a dozen restaurants and pubs to a business district previously known for boarded-up storefronts. 

Station Yards' second phase, currently under construction around the intersection of Hawkins and Railroad avenues, has seen the completion of more than 200 additional apartments, plus the openings of new banks, bars, stores, restaurants and health care clinics, according to developer Tritec Real Estate.

When this part is finished in 2026 , Tritec will have built a total of 1,052 apartments, 68,419 square feet of retail and 16,500 square feet of offices since construction started in November 2017. 

Tritec is among Station Yards' new tenants, having relocated its headquarters from East Setauket.

Where once was a slapdash collection of small businesses like barbershops and liquor stores, crumbling parking lots and a private bus depot now stand modern apartment buildings with public courtyards hosting outdoor concerts and community barbecues.

While some area shops were razed to make way for Station Yards, those that remain are experiencing a rebirth — some adding new facades and many benefiting from new customers provided by the new apartments, business owners say. 

More than a half-dozen businesses have opened or are under construction, including Bethpage Federal Credit Union, Great South Bay Brewery, Catholic Health, the Tap Room bar, and Toast coffee shop, with additional stores expected to open by the end of the year, Tritec marketing director Christoper Kelly said.

Tritec officials said they worked closely with community leaders to pick the types of stores that would be offered leases in the complex. Following surveys and market studies, Tritec settled on locally owned stores that were "true to Long Island," executive vice president Jim Coughlan said.

Tritec is set to start construction within weeks to finish the second of what company officials have said will be five phases on 53 acres stretching from Ronkonkoma Avenue east to Mill Road along the north side of the Long Island Rail Road tracks.

Brookhaven Town's 2012 agreement naming Tritec to redevelop the community allows the company to build up to 1,450 apartments, 195,000 square feet of retail and 360,000 square feet of office space. Tritec officials say they don't know when the entire project will be completed.

Estimated economic impact: $330M

Gauging Stations Yards' economic impact so far is difficult because local economic development agencies typically don't assess major projects until they are completed.

The Brookhaven Town Industrial Development Agency in 2014 estimated Station Yards would generate more than $330 million in economic benefits when it is completed, including state and local property and sales tax revenue. That estimate has not been updated, IDA chief executive officer Lisa Mulligan said.

Martin Cantor, director of the Long Island Center for Socio-Economic Policy, an independent Melville think tank, said Station Yards is a "great project," but its overall benefits will be limited if residents are simply moving to Ronkonkoma from other parts of Suffolk County.

About half the residents who have moved into Station Yards since 2020 previously lived elsewhere in Suffolk, Kelly said.

“The economic impact to Suffolk County will only be the new people” from outside the county, said Cantor, a former Suffolk economic development director. “If the people there are not new to the area, then we’re just reshuffling the deck chairs.”

But Brookhaven Councilman Neil Foley, who represents Ronkonkoma on the town board, said Station Yards has "definitely lived up to expectations," adding, "You’ve seen a lot of businesses come in to be part of the Stations Yards community.

“The best is yet to come, and I think we still have about three or four years [of construction] to go, but the number of people coming to these beautiful apartments will change the area for the better," he said.

Boosting LI's housing stock

Station Yards long has had the support of housing advocates and public officials who have said that, despite relatively high rents, the project would address Long Island's chronic need to replenish its aging housing stock. 

Monthly rents for 563 apartments built recently or under construction range from $2,000 to $2,450 for studios; $2,600 to $3,450 for one-bedroom units; $3,500 to $4,095 for two-bedroom units; and $4,300 to $4,725 for three-bedroom apartments, Kelly said. 

John Cameron, a Woodbury-based engineer, said those prices put Station Yards on the "higher end" of rental housing costs on Long Island. But the addition of hundreds of new residential units in the geographical center of Long Island should bring down housing prices over time by offering a wider range of options for seniors, young individuals and couples, he said.

“The key is we need to increase the [housing] supply, and being near a train station is a major advantage because the cars are off the road,” said Cameron, chairman of the Long Island Regional Planning Council, which helps to guide development in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

The council in 2014 named Station Yards a project of regional significance, making it eligible for millions of dollars worth of government and private grants to fund new parking and infrastructure improvements.

Station Yards has received a $26.4 million Suffolk County grant for sewer hookups and a separate $2.3 million county grant for infrastructure upgrades.

"We need more projects" like Station Yards, Cameron said. “With more volume and more units, the developers can reduce the prices of the individual units.”

Tritec officials said in addition to attracting new businesses, they encourage Station Yards' new residents to check out older stores in the neighborhood, including florists, gyms and delicatessens.

Station Yards is one of two major developments expected to transform Ronkonkoma.

The other, the $2.8 billion Midway Crossing, in Islip Town south of the LIRR tracks, would include a convention center, 300-room hotel, health sciences facilities and a new north air terminal for Long Island MacArthur Airport.

The project has not been submitted for formal review by town, county and state officials and is more than a decade from completion.

'Pride' of the community

For a recent outdoor concert in one of Station Yards' public courtyards, Tritec brought in food trucks from local stores such as Boxcar Burgers.

"You're being sensitive to the needs of the community," said Tritec executive vice president and partner Kevin Law, whose career in government and the private sector includes stints as president of the Long Island Power Authority and deputy Suffolk County executive. He serves as chairman of Empire State Development, which provides loans, grants and tax credits for major development projects.

The agency provided $50 million for Station Yards parking garages in 2017, before Law joined Tritec about two years ago.

Station Yards has been notable for the relative absence of community opposition it has drawn since it was proposed nearly two decades ago.

Community leaders have said Tritec, dating back to early drafts of the project, earned residents' trust by seeking their suggestions and incorporating them into final plans.

No one spoke in opposition to permits for the current phase during a May public hearing before the Brookhaven Town Board. Instead, union members who said the project would create construction jobs, Ronkonkoma Chamber of Commerce president Ed McNamara and Holbrook Chamber of Commerce president Rick Ammirati told the town board they supported the project.

“They are the most transparent developers I’ve ever met in my 25 years of working,” Ammirati said, referring to Tritec. “When they came with this plan, we knew it was smart.”

McNamara told the board Tritec "has been a terrific partner," adding, "They do it the right way."

McNamara stood in Station Yards' village green-style public courtyard last month while a band played classic rock music for an audience of several dozen people. Smiling broadly, the 66-year Ronkonkoma resident said the development has spurred a wave of suburban renewal in the community as older stores such as grocery stores and pharmacies spruce up their facades to attract new customers.

"It's brought a lot of pride to the community," McNamara said. "The other businesses, they're raising their game."

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.