Add housing at Holbrook's Sun Vet Mall

A 282,000-square-foot mall sits on 18 acres of land. It's now 92% vacant — with only four tenants remaining. 

The large tract is in desperate need of an overhaul. It's a perfect opportunity to dream big, to plan something that's innovative, thoughtful, exciting, to perhaps even make a dent in one of Long Island's desperate needs: housing for both young and old who can't find places to live in our communities.

So, what's planned for the Sun Vet Mall in Holbrook? Possibly a Whole Foods Market. Maybe a Starbucks with not one, but two drive-thru lanes. Three banks. A shopping center. A restaurant or two.

And not one unit of housing. What about a few apartments over some of those businesses, or a small complex of townhouses at one end? Adding residents could provide more life and character. A little less mall-y, if you will.

Sun Vet isn't alone. Advocates and developers have long talked about rethinking Long Island's mall space. Retail needs are shifting, they rightly note, and there are better uses for such facilities which, like Sun Vet, are often marked by significant vacancy rates and economic woes. So far, despite the clear opportunity and need, no mall parcel developers seem ready to consider adding housing to a new project's uses.

Certainly Blumenfeld Development Group's proposal for Sun Vet would revitalize a tired, mostly vacant property. It would bring economic activity and more tax dollars. At least, the Whole Foods would fill some needs for a community short on good grocery options. All told, Blumenfeld would construct a 134,000-square-foot shopping center with seven tenants, including the grocery store as one of the anchors. Beyond the shopping center, the property also would include seven separate buildings for additional uses.

"We're building what the community needs and will want," Ed Blumenfeld told the editorial board. Islip Town officials noted that more housing might not be what communities like Holbrook "need."

Yet, almost all communities on Long Island need more housing options. Dilapidated shopping centers like Sun Vet or, even more significantly, Sunrise Mall in Massapequa, are ideal spots for new thinking that should include residential uses. Yet, that's not what developers plan to do. Part of the reason: Housing comes with headaches, in part due to financial constraints and community concerns. Housing means begging town, zoning or planning boards to say yes. It means going to industrial development agencies for tax incentives. It means fighting for state funding. It means a constant push-and-pull with a community often likely to say no.

Until Long Island and the state make it easier to build housing that meets the needs of Long Islanders, there's little motivation to turn a mall into a mixed-use development with housing, shops and more.

The Sun Vet project is a missed opportunity to build what generations of Long Islanders need and will want.