There wasn’t a “Mission Accomplished” banner hung outside the Shoregate apartment complex at Tuesday’s ribbon cutting ceremony, marking the completion of the massive and transformative downtown project.
But there might as well have been.
Not just for the $173 million project, but the overall revitalization of Bay Shore.
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In 1999, some 43 percent of the downtown was either vacant or boarded up after years of languish. There was a persistent and stubborn vagrancy problem, and the “schools were failing,” explained Donna Periconi, president of the Bay Shore Chamber of Commerce for over 30 years.
Today, you’ll find a bustling downtown and a decorated school district, all due to community vision — and tireless efforts that Periconi outlined to the hundreds gathered outside Shoregate.
“We’re coming together to recognize what will be one of Bay Shore’s last revitalization efforts,” she told the crowd.
In other words, mission accomplished.
“This development is truly a picturebook example of what transit-oriented development is all about,” added Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter, who also spoke Tuesday.
In November, Shoregate began welcoming residents to its 418 rental units, all located just a block north of Main Street and across from the Long Island Rail Road station on Union Avenue at the old Touro College property. (84 units have been set aside for affordable housing programs.)
According to Kelley Coughlan-Heck — who oversaw the massive project for the developers, Tritec Real Estate — as of Tuesday the complex was already 51 percent leased and 30 percent occupied.
Indeed, four more leases were signed that very day.
“And the day’s not over,” said Robert Coughlan, a Tritec principal and co-founder.
Tritec executives bill the project as transient-oriented, first-class living that’s geared mostly toward younger people and empty nesters.
That goes also for the company’s New Village project in Patchogue, The Core Station Yards in Ronkonkoma and The Shipyard in Port Jefferson, among others.
“Their developments are extraordinary … ” said Periconi. “Their tenants enjoy a lifestyle of comfort and luxury. Some Bay Shore residents were opposed to such a large apartment development in a historic, 300-year-old hamlet filled with mostly single-family homes.
“But we know Long Island is changing, and Bay Shore must not be left behind.”
