Downtown on Main: ‘A Masonry Cube in an Asphalt Sea’

The blighted former Nassau Suffolk Lumber Yard will overshadow Smithtown’s West Main Street a little longer as developers of a mixed-used retail and apartment complex have been sent back to the drawing board.

Smithtown Planning Department blasted North Fork Management & Maintenance’s proposed plans for Downtown on Main, a project aimed at constructing two buildings that mix retail store, office space and 56 apartments on the site of the former Nassau Suffolk Lumber Yard.

“From the outside, it’s a masonry cube in an asphalt seat of parking. You haven’t seen that around since 1965,” said David Flynn, Smithtown’s assistant planning director. “It’s no question, it requires redesign. Based on sketches we’ve done, it’s possible without loss of yield.”

The current design for Downtown on Main, which has already been through several revisions,  propose two 3-story buildings at 39-feet and 37-feet in height, that will include retail spaces, 56 accessory apartments and 173 parking spaces. It is seeking 7 variances, including permission to building accessory apartments on the first floor and reduce distance between wings of the building from 30 feet to 15 feet.

Flynn asked they consider eliminating the proposed courtyard, keeping the buildings wings 30 feet apart instead of 15 feet apart so apartments dwellers woudln't directly overlook other units.

“We were considering either a straight or L-shaped building instead,” Flynn said.

The planning department also asked Northfork Management to install sidewalks and landscaping between the building and its parking lot to improve outward appearances, and plant a dense buffer along its border with New York Avenue homes.

Vincent Trimarco, attorney for North Fork Management was concerned these changes would eat valuable space, reducing the number of proposed apartment units.

“There comes a point economically where you need to be able to build the number of..  This is the minimum we can build and make it economically feasible,” Trimarco said.

However, Steve Hyman, engineer with H2M Engineering designing Downtown on Main, said his clients would be interested in meeting with the planning department to reconsider some of the town’s requests.

John McFadyen, neighoring building owner of 86-88 West Main Street, asked the BZA to consider the project a “good motivating’ idea that will help bring businesses and people back to town.

“I hope you use this terrific piece of development that might bring industry into the town so building owners, like myself, don’t have to have to have vacant building with no hope of anyone coming in,” McFadyen said.

He claimed The Oxford Learning Center moved out in the midst of a 12-year lease due to the derelict status of the former Nassau Suffolk Lumber Yard and uncertainty about its future.

Smithtown Supervisor Patrick Vecchio has said he's interested in quick progress on the property to eliminate the downtown eyesore.