Station Yards, the 53-acre, $1.2 billion mixed-use development next to what’s described as the busiest railway station in Long Island’s Suffolk County, wants to become a new downtown destination.
Having been billed as the largest transit-oriented development in the New York suburb of Long Island, Station Yards, also known as the Ronkonkoma Hub, is located at the Long Island Rail Road's Ronkonkoma Train Station, adjacent to the Long Island MacArthur Airport and two blocks from the Long Island Expressway. Colliers, the brokerage exclusively marketing the retail space on behalf of Station Yards developer Tritec Real Estate, has said some 17,000 commuters travel through the Ronkonkoma train station every day to New York’s Penn Station.
But building the mixed-use residential, office, retail and hospitality development involved overcoming different challenges, including the lack of sewer infrastructure; only 30% of Suffolk County has sewers. Tritec said it worked with municipal partners to build a 1.5 million-gallon pump station and more than 7 miles of sewer pipes to build the development. While the complex is expected to use 450,000 gallons of capacity, there’ll be more than 1 million gallons for additional economic development or for spaces previously without sewer use, Tritec said. The development has won a LEED green building certification for neighborhood development, the first on Long Island, the developer said.
The project won the CoStar Impact Award for multifamily development of the year for Long Island, as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market.
About the Project: Station Yards, being built in phases, will include, at full build-out, 1,450 residential units; 360,000 square feet of office space; 195,000 square feet of retail; and 60,000 square feet of hospitality space.
What the Judges Said: "The location and redevelopment of a dormant area is extremely impressive and brings value to the area," said Michael Murphy, president of the commercial division at Douglas Elliman. Adam Rochlin, owner of the Rochlin Organization, said, "Bringing a much-needed mixed-use development onto Long Island has been long overdue. The success of Station Yards is now a blueprint for local downtown developments."
They Made It Happen: At developer Tritec Real Estate Co., James Coughlan and Kelley Heck worked on the project. Cushman & Wakefield’s David Pennetta and Steven D’Orazio represented landlord Tritec in leasing activities. Chris Fiorentino at Bozzuto Group is the property manager.
CoStar Market Manager Grant Hunt contributed to this report.