At a Greater Bellport Coalition meeting last week, Gleneagle Green developer Peter Florey, D & F Development Group LLC principal, announced plans to transform an entire area on Montauk Highway with commercial businesses as well as a continuance on Atlantic Avenue, with affordable housing. Florey told the Advance the commitment represents an approximate $50 million investment in what’s called the Montauk Atlantic Avenue project.
The meeting was held at the Bellport Hagerman East Patchogue Alliance at 1492 Montauk Highway, which Florey attended.
“Twenty people came that included board members, pastors from Victory and Shiloh churches, the executive director of Head Start, BHEP’s director of community services Clarine Boone, councilman Michael Loguercio’s aide James Canale, and interested residents. We had about five people on Zoom, including officials from Suffolk County Economic Development,” said GBC co-chair John Rogers, who added an extensive email list was distributed with the meeting date, so those who wanted to attend could.
The project will be up for vote as part of an overlay district at Brookhaven Town Hall on Nov. 18.
“We had an update on Gleneagle. The applications for the lottery will become available starting Jan. 2.”
Rogers referred to the Gleneagle Green at Bellport complex on Atlantic Avenue next to the Boys & Girls Club of the Bellport Area, the $30 million affordable housing project that includes nine buildings, 70 units, a community center, structured playground, landscaping and sitting areas. It will be gated with an onsite supervisor. Rents for the one- and two-bedroom units are priced from $1,000 to about $1,800, Florey said. The big qualification, Florey emphasized, is income. The range is from $35,000 to $75,000; other qualifiers include household size and credit history. Florey has hired at least 14 locals to work so far on the Gleneagle project.
Rogers said in 2014, 400 locals were in support of the Brookhaven Town Greater Bellport Land Use Plan, that is, vibrant stores and affordable apartments, and that in 2018, 200 locals were in support of Gleneagle.
The Dunkin’ Donuts on 1669 Montauk Highway at the corner of Michigan Avenue, was the first sign of a recent Main Street evolution via developer Ben Bathija.
“The residential will be between Atlantic Avenue and Montauk Highway,” Florey explained, of the approximately 100 affordable housing apartments planned. “We’re also planning a 10,000-square-foot grocery store on the corner of Post and Montauk, and we’re also talking with a potential bank for a branch and also a laundromat. It’s a mix of uses.”
Rogers explained the development’s boundaries: “It’s like a rectangle,” he said. “It’s Montauk Highway from Hoffman to Michigan avenues, then north to Atlantic Avenue, then back to Hoffman, and to Montauk.” Land across from the Gleneagle project on the south side of Atlantic Avenue off Patchogue Avenue will also be utilized for the project.
Florey said the apartments would be similar to the Gleneagle project in quality design and in keeping design consistency to two-story, low-rise, with landscaping workforce housing reaching similar income groups at similar rents.
An anticipated starting date would most likely be early 2023, he said. Florey added his company was looking to acquire county property north of Atlantic for a sewage treatment plant to accommodate the Montauk Atlantic Avenue in Bellport project.
Gleneagle already has a small sewage treatment plant located on the north side of Atlantic and Patchogue avenues.
Councilman Mike Loguercio said he’s been staying on his election promise to help revitalize North Bellport, citing the auto-salvage businesses first, bringing most of them into compliance, which included cleaning up their facades.
“In addition, we started new Holla Dollar. I worked with the owner of the Sunoco Station for a new façade. We worked with Miracle Plaza to make it neater and also the Dunkin’ Donuts owner,” he said. “Peter [Florey] was the first one to dip his toe in the water. I’m trying to bring in a walkable downtown so these people who live here can shop here. I’m also working with the MTA to coordinate their stops so local riders don’t have to go to Patchogue.”
Loguercio said the town was working closely with the developer to expedite the process. “So that we safely inspect and expedite, we’ll try to get it done as quickly as possible,” he said. “I’ve also been working with the planning and building departments to find ways so residents and commercial developers don’t have to wait so long for the permit process.”
Joanne Neal, a member of the Greater Bellport Coalition since it started, said she was one of the first people in Bellport to see Florey’s project in Melville (Highland Green, 117 limited equity co-ops). “He rented a bus for us and provided a lunch,” she said. “We spoke to people and everyone there loves him, so it was a good start for those of us who went. That was over two years ago; since then, he’s taken other groups.”
Neal runs the daycare program for 3-to-5-year-olds at the Boys & Girls Club of the Bellport Area. “[Florey] bought land on Hoffman and Post,” she said. “He talked about building apartments there, plus businesses; we talked about having a bank when we first had a plan and we went around to different banks.”
Neal has resided in her house locally since 1972. “It’s been a good place for my kids; they went to the local schools, went to college and got professional jobs,” she said.
Her son, Jason Neal, born and raised in Bellport, came a little late to the meeting because of a VFW meeting. Jason served in the Army’s 10th Mountain Division as a combat infantryman. But he did get to see the presentation.
“The new project looks like it will create workforce housing for individuals who need it and can’t afford a house. Long Island is an expensive place to live and work, and we want more working people to stay,” he said.
Jason, a full-time director of youth programs and the community liaison for the Boys & Girls Club and part-time shelter manager for Suffolk County United Veterans in Yaphank, said he would welcome affordable housing. “I’ve been to the first-time home buyers workshop at BEHAP and also the workshop for those interested in the apartments, aiding them in budgeting issues and to help them raise credit scores.”