Big Things for Patchogue!

   By Doug Geed

   I grew up in Syosset, so during my youth, I barely even heard of Patchogue. For us, it was a place "way out in Suffolk." (Ironic, now that I spend so much time "way out" even by Patchogue standards -- on the East End.)

    But my wife was raised in Bellport, so we spent a lot of time in Patchogue and came to know it very well. In fact our first date (way back in 1981) was at a place called Two Morrow's Pub (great burgers and a fireplace -- boy, did I know how to impress the ladies!).

  My first job right out of college was at W-A-L-K Radio in East Patchogue. So I grew to love this village. There's so much history and charm to it. Like Bay Shore, Riverhead and many other Long Island downtowns, they suffered economically when big shopping malls started popping up in the 60's and people started turning away from their local Mom and Pop store to do one-stop shopping. So there's no question, Patchogue went through some tough times -- and still does to an extent today.

   Remember Swezey's? What a great place! A unique one-of-a-kind department store, like something you'd find in the mid-West. Small, friendly, wrap-your-gift-for-free-at-Christmas -- yet always managed to have everything you needed. Swezey's was a fixture in Patchogue for more than a hundred years, but it closed about 10 years ago and the building has sat vacant on the corner of North Ocean and Main Street ever since.

   But within the next 6 months, expect some major construction. A real estate developer out of East Setauket -- Tritec -- is starting a 130-million dollar downtown revitalization project. The company bought 6 parcels, including the Swezey's property, and plans to build 240 new rental units, a 104-room Hilton Gardens Hotel, 30-thousand square feet of retail stores and 15-thousand square feet of office space.

   Of the 240 apartments, 67 will be considered "affordable." Tritec's Robert Coughlan told me that means about 1-thousand dollars a month for a studio. Other apartments will be as large as 3-bedroom units for 25-hundred dollars.

   The project was announced with much fanfare by Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, Patchogue's Mayor, Paul Pontieri, Suffolk County Legislator Jack Eddington, Tritec's Coughlan and others, including affordable housing advocates. Officials say they're specifically targeting young people, saying the only way companies on Long Island can weather this economic storm and hope to grow is by having access to young workers. And the only way to have access to young workers is to give THEM access to a place they can afford to live.

   They envision a vibrant, exciting downtown area where residents will be able to walk out of their new apartments and shop, congregate in open courtyards with fountains and eat in a string of new restaurants -- all within walking distance. And they expect this to be a formula to turn around other downtown areas on Long Island -- getting people to live in refurbished or brand new apartments on Main Streets so they'll have a vested interest in keeping the downtown looking good. That, in turn, attracts new businesses to the area and helps some of the old-time shops expand and prosper.

    Sounds good to me. Let's hope it works. For many people, Long Island is just one long, sprawling suburb. Our downtowns are what help make the Island the special place that it is.

   For more information about the Patchogue project, check out this link:
http://www.patchoguevillage.org/DEIS/draft_environmental_impact_state.htm