The Village of Patchogue, located 55 miles outside New York City on Long Island, may not seem a likely candidate for transit-oriented development. An incorporated village within the town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, this quiet, old, south shore community with about 12,000 residents on 2.2 square miles, is known mostly for its maritime activities and ferry service to the Fire Island National Seashore. However, it has a long history of rail access—the Long Island Rail Road’s (LIRR) Montauk Branch has been carrying passengers between Patchogue and New York City since 1869.

Like many other small towns, Patchogue's downtown suffered when regional malls, spurred by the Long Island Expressway, lured shoppers away. And, like so many towns, Patchogue is looking to transit-oriented development as a way to revitalize its main street core and restore derelict areas.

Leading this initiative is Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri who has been busy since 2004 implementing smart growth projects throughout the town, especially within walking distance to the train station. “We’re 150 years old and we have pockets of blight,” Pontieri said in a recent interview. “But, we have some great assets—our railroad station, our sewer capacity, and our waterfront and our compact downtown, both walkable from the station." Interestingly, his town does not have a master plan, but he noted that there is no resistance to increased density for new development projects. This is primarily because all of the new building that the mayor supports has to have a significant workforce housing component. He added, "We have a great Village Board [of Trustees] that endorses these visions, and the Village has a strong community outreach effort so people know what is happening."

Patchogue Theatre

The town was somewhat on the rebound prior to Pontieri becoming mayor. In 1997, the Village acquired the 1923 Patchogue Theatre on East Main Street, a couple of blocks from the rail station. The theatre had started as a home for Broadway productions and vaudeville acts; later it was converted to a movie house. Unfortunately, this venture failed and the theatre stood empty for over a decade. With the help of grant funding, the facility was restored and expanded over the next seven years at a cost of $6 million, and now seats just over 1,200 with full accessibility. This year’s events will include touring companies, a large variety of music, children’s programming, comedians and variety shows. The mayor noted that performance times were coordinated with the train schedule, so that people from other areas could use the train to attend. Also underway before Pontieri took office was Seacrest Village, a gated luxury rental complex built by a local developer in 2003. The project is located within a block of the train station, on the former site of an automotive store.

Copper Beech Village

Across the street from Seacrest is Copper Beech Village, a project spearheaded by Pontieri that features 80 townhomes on five acres. Copper Beech Village functions as a transition between a neighborhood of single family homes located to the south of the train station and the commercial area of Main Street to the north. In order to bring about this project, Pontieri worked with a nationally known developer, Pulte Homes, and Suffolk County, which provided $3.3 million for land acquisition. The three-story units, completed in 2007, feature two bedrooms, loft/den, two and one-half baths, and a one-car garage. Forty of the units were deemed workforce housing—20 units were reserved for households making up to 120 percent of median area income (MAI) at a sale price of around $240,000; 20 units were set aside for those making up to 80 percent of MAI and offered at approximately $159,000. The market rate units sold from $300,000 to $400,000. The Long Island Housing Partnership (LIHP) qualified the buyers for the affordable units and held a lottery for their disposition. The LIHP will continue to oversee any future transactions of the subsidized units which will remain affordable in perpetuity.

The mayor is now supporting two new projects in the approval process. The larger is a mixed-use residential development by TRITEC Development Group of Long Island, named "New Village." The site, known as the "Four Corners," will feature 240 rental units, 75 of which will be affordable. Other uses will include a six-story, 100-room Hilton Garden Inn, 28,000 square feet of retail space, and the renovation of 12,000 square feet of office space in the existing Wedgwood building. The centerpiece of the project will be a 5,000-square foot town square that will be adjacent to the Main Street commercial area. The estimated cost of the development is $134 million.

Smaller, but equally exciting, is the Artspace project on Terry Street, just a block off Main Street. Artspace, which develops live/work facilities for artists around the country, is planning a five-story building with 45 affordable units on the upper floors and retail space at street level. The $16 million project represents both economic revitalization and the opportunity to strengthen a growing arts community. Many Main Street storefronts are now occupied by artists and creative businesses. In further support of the arts community, Pontieri noted that future plans include converting the Village’s 1909 Carnegie library into a cultural art space.

As a result of the theatre renovation and new housing, many new restaurants and shops have sprung up on Main Street. The town's hope is to make Patchogue an arts and recreation destination with a night life that will attract not only seaside vacationers, but business travelers away from the chain hotels on the Long Island Expressway.

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