Bree Vaughn traded in her room in midtown Manhattan for a one-bedroom apartment at The Core Station Yards in Ronkonkoma.
The 27-year-old from Farmingville was among the first to move into the complex.
And she could not be happier.
“It’s so nice,” she told Greater Long Island. “My friends had been waiting for me to move in, so they came right over and were like, “Oh my god, you live in a hotel! It feels like we’re at a resort and we’re going down [the elevator] to meet our parents or something.'”
That was the idea behind The Core Station Yards, first-class living in the heart of Long Island.
And with plenty of amenities on hand.
All that, and there’s a new type of downtown that the Station Yards developers, Tritec Real Estate, are building around what used to be referred to as Ronkonkoma Hub.
The sprawling, 53-plus acre project, when it’s fully built out, will bring 1,450 new homes to the center of the island, with plenty of bars, restaurants, banking and shopping options.
Between living in Manhattan and Ronkonkoma, Vaughn, who works for a global events company, had lived for a short time in Coram.
She would drive for about a half hour to catch a train to the city.
“I cut my train commute down by a half hour,” she said. “I’m so excited that I can literally walk across the street [to the LIRR station], which is like 700 feet away. I don’t even need a car anymore. And, I can put my dog at Hounds Town doggy day care, which is right here too.”
Vaughn stopped being a “city girl,” she said, during the pandemic, returned home and never looked back.
Now she gets the best of both worlds, especially when the Tap Room, Toast Coffee + Kitchen, Lucharitos, Great South Bay Brewery and more bars, restaurants and other Island hot spots open at the complex.
Despite all that, she told us her favorite part of life at The Core Station Yards is the staff.
“The people here have been so great,” she said “They dropped off a pizza the day I moved in. Always saying hi and asking how I’m doing.
“It’s really comfortable knowing that I’m living in an area where the people who are working here actually care about the people who are living here.”
