Still Rising | Long Island Business News

For Michael Dawson, the new one-bedroom apartment he rents in the latest building at the Wyandanch Village development is a godsend.

After bouncing around for years, renting rooms in single-family homes and other temporary living arrangements, the 77-year-old believes he has finally found a decent place to hang his hat.

“It’s a blessing,” says Dawson, a percussionist who still performs with three different bands. “There’s not enough affordable developments for older adults, so this is important.”

Dawson was among the gathering of state, county and local officials, developers, community leaders and residents who attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier this month for the 94-unit affordable senior apartment complex at 11 Park Drive, the fourth building to be completed in the ongoing Wyandanch Village project.

MICHAEL DAWSON: ‘There’s not enough affordable developments for older adults, so this is important.’ Photo by David Winzelberg

The affordable rental building is for people aged 62 and over who earn between 30 percent and 70 percent of the area median income, offering studios and one-bedroom apartments for monthly rents ranging from $650 to $1,579. Amenities at the new transit-oriented development, located just steps away from the Wyandanch Long Island Rail Road station, include a fitness center, lounge, courtyard and a community garden.

The $40 million project was developed by a partnership of Garden City-based Albanese Organization and the nonprofit Selfhelp Realty Group, an affiliate of Manhattan-based Selfhelp Community Services.

In 2011, the Albanese Organization was tapped as master developer by the Town of Babylon to reimagine 40 acres around the Wyandanch LIRR station. The company began construction on the first building in 2013 and nearly a decade later, the project aimed at revitalizing one of Long Island’s most distressed neighborhoods continues to progress.

The origins of the public/private partnership first dubbed Wyandanch Rising actually started with conversations among community members some two decades ago. One of those involved early on was Vanessa Baird-Streeter, deputy Suffolk County executive, who grew up on Grand Boulevard and lived in Wyandanch for 25 years. She credits Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, then Babylon Town supervisor, with being the driving force behind the revitalization effort and organizing the visioning process.

“It was led by government, but the community came together to envision what they wanted to see in the hamlet of Wyandanch, which I think was really important, Baird-Streeter said. “So, it wasn’t government coming in saying this is what we’re going to create, but it was government working with the community to really realize the vision of community members.”

In the run-up to the project, the town assembled more than 70 mostly blighted properties and orchestrated a land swap with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that allowed construction of a 920-space commuter parking garage to clear the way for the development. So far, Albanese has delivered four residential buildings with a total of 395 apartments, about 35,000 square feet of retail space, a community resource center and a community plaza with a seasonal ice-skating rink.

Most of the buildings were designed by Salvatore Coco of Melville-based BHC Architects and the engineering for the development has been provided by Woodbury-based Cameron Engineering.

“It’s a great project,” said John Cameron, founder and managing partner of Cameron Engineering. “The Albanese Organization have set themselves apart by seeing this all the way through.”

Russell Albanese, chairman of Garden City-based Albanese Organization, said the company recognized Wyandanch as an opportunity to team up with the town and bring in its expertise to help revitalize the community.

“The town sought after good planning, good architecture, high-quality construction and the community had gone through a very long visioning process and their own planning process with the town. So, everyone, including the community, was rallying behind the project, and that’s really what drew us in,” Albanese told LIBN. “We weren’t going up against many of the challenges faced by developers on Long Island and elsewhere, where there’s a lot of community opposition. We felt that it was an opportunity to make an investment that we felt long term would be good for the company and good for the community.”

These days, it’s been good for Keith Banks, a Wyandanch Village resident, who also owns the Sir Shave salon located in a 1,500-square-foot space in the development’s retail complex on Station Drive.

“The center is very busy. We have the residents that are upstairs, which is great because we get a lot of that traffic as well,” said Banks, who’s also a personal and business finance executive in Melville. “There’s a lot that goes on throughout the year, a lot of marketing, a lot of promotions, a lot of different events, the skating that will be coming back, lots of free concerts, so there’s a lot that goes on contributing to traffic in the area so it’s a great location.”

Banks originally planned to open the barber shop in Brooklyn, but the revitalization effort attracted him to Wyandanch, following in his mom and dad’s footsteps.

“My parents had a business here back in the early 80s. They had a beauty supply store and a record store, so I knew about the area,” he said. “But when I heard about the whole Wyandanch Rising project, I said this is something that’s a great opportunity to give back to the community in a more positive way.”

Attorney Ghenya Grant, president of the Greater Wyandanch Chamber of Commerce, said that while the development is a positive step towards revitalization in the area around the train station, she would like to see more investment spread to more parts of the community.

“There are millions of dollars that have been poured into that specific project and there’s a dearth of resources in many respects going elsewhere,” she said. “We’d like to see the business community develop beyond that area. For everything to be centered in that particular area is something that we’d like to see changed a bit.”

Grant added that she’d like Wyandanch to have a central business district and wants increased security to keep the neighborhood safe, because crime has long been a concern. She also mentioned that redevelopment should be focused on the south side of the LIRR tracks, and that’s where a lot of Wyandanch Village’s future projects are headed.

Albanese said construction is expected to start in January on a $140 million mixed-use building at the corner of Straight Path and Long Island Avenue on the south side of the LIRR station. The five-story project, the first in the development’s Phase 2, will bring 218 affordable apartments over about 8,700 square feet of community facility space and should be completed in about two years.

After that, Albanese will develop a 100,000-square-foot health and wellness center building to be owned by the town, with about 65,000 square feet occupied by the YMCA of Long Island and the rest occupied by Sun River Health. The project will be located just east of the plaza on the north side of the station. Albanese expects to begin construction in “early to mid-2023” with completion to take about 18 months.

SO FAR: Already built are 395 apartments, about 35,000 square feet of retail space, a community resource center and a community plaza with a seasonal ice-skating rink. Photo by Judy Walker

Back on the south side, the town is planning a greenspace and park, with a playground, community garden and dog run. Just east of that, Albanese is planning to build about 70 for-sale townhomes.

Eventually, there will be another apartment building on the north side, to be constructed on the existing gravel and dirt lot between Straight Path and Park Drive.

“There’s a lot of moving pieces that are advancing and we’re moving forward in the planning department with review of new buildings,” said Babylon Planning Commissioner Rachel Scelfo. “It’s very active in a number of different respects, with new buildings on the horizon, so it’s very positive.”

Albanese agrees.

“A lot of our residents consist of many families and individuals that have lived in the community for a long time, and the development has also brought in new people to the community,” he said. “It’s provided affordable housing for families who truly need affordable, up through moderate workforce and market-rate housing.”

All in all, there’s a lot more to come.

“We’ve got about 10 years to go,” Albanese said.

DWINZELBERG@LIBN.COM