Former Boston Market in Shirley to be demolished for Wells Fargo Branch

The long-vacant Boston Market restaurant in Shirley’s Lighthouse Commons shopping center will soon be demolished and replaced with a new Wells Fargo bank branch, Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico announced.

The project calls for demolishing the existing building on the .73-acre site at 803 Montauk Highway and constructing a 3,500-square-foot bank branch in its place. The property is owned by Carle Place-based Sun Enterprises LLC.

“In Shirley, this former Boston Market location will soon be demolished, and a new Wells Fargo bank branch will be built,” Panico said in a Facebook post.

The supervisor included site plans and architectural renderings showing the proposed design, which Brookhaven’s planning department and town board will review with the applicant regarding “appearance, architectural elements, and landscaping elements.”

Panico noted what he believes is an interesting trend in the retail landscape: while Amazon Fresh locations are closing, traditional retail banking appears to be making a comeback in Brookhaven.

Amazon recently announced it would close all 72 of its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go supermarkets nationwide, including two Long Island locations in East Setauket and Oceanside. A Plainview Amazon Fresh location had already closed in September 2025, less than a year after opening.

Panico cited his earlier work with Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich helping the owner of a shuttered bank at Route 347 and Old Town Road in Port Jefferson Station secure approval for a new Webster Bank branch.

“It’s interesting to me, and perhaps to you as well, that as the much-heralded modern Amazon Fresh locations announce they are shutting their doors, the much-written-off retail banking business seems to be making a comeback throughout Brookhaven,” Panico wrote. “A subtle reminder that the free market lives and is nurtured by the power of the consumer.”

The Shirley location is the latest former Boston Market property in the region to be repurposed. In West Hempstead, the 3,000-square-foot former Boston Market at Nassau Plaza is now occupied by Wild Fork Foods. Meanwhile, two former Boston Market locations in Selden and East Islip have been converted to Tex’s Chicken and Burgers restaurants.

_{Top: Nicholas Esposito photo}