Business & Tech

Owner Replacing Lost Spots as Construction Cuts Parking From Pathmark

Land swap results in a new park for the community, the reconstruction of Route 112 intersection and replacement of parking spots for Pathmark property owner.

A swath of land cleared along Route 347 will go towards replace parking in the Pathmark shopping center in Port Jefferson Station that the state took away to install jug handles at Route 112, according to officials and the property owner. Plans filed with Brookhaven Town also call for additional square footage to be added to the strip mall in what is being called "phase two" of the shopping center project.

The cleared land bordering Route 347 just north of Pathmark is not for planned construction on Routes 112 and 347 intersection by the New York State Department of Transportation as was originally reported to Patch. According a representative from the state agency, a smaller piece of land west of the property was cleared by the contractor to set up work for intersection, which led to the confusion over the work being done.

"It was the shopping center owner who is making additional parking," Eileen Peters said in telephone call to Patch to correct the error.

A land swap deal that was almost a decade in the making allowed the New York State Department of Transportation to begin its recently announced renovation work on the Routes 112 and 347 intersection and lets Brookhaven Town build a park near the Northern Brookhaven Chamber of Commerce train trolley.

In order to begin construction on both the parking lot expansion and the renovation of the nearby Route 112 intersection the land swap was coordinated between LKG Port Jefferson, LLC, who is listed on Brookhaven Town Planning documents as the owner of the Pathmark shopping center, the New York State Department of Transportation and Brookhaven Town, according to Peters.

“There was a land swap involved in order to construct the jug handle and accommodate the future construction of the park,” she said. “The location on DOT property was not ideal."

"The advantage is to provide a safer intersection and to have a more advantageous piece of property for Brookhaven Town."

Keith Archer, a lawyer representing the property owner said that the land deal had been in the works for almost ten years and that it was accelerated from a date in 2017 to this year when Gov. Cuomo announced the project.

He called the work a “reconfiguring” of the property and LKG is coordinating with NYS DOT to accommodate the new road improvements.

The jug handle planned for Route 112 will cut into the Pathmark shopping center taking out some of its parking spaces. The owner negotiated with NYS DOT, Brookhaven Town and had input from civic groups to come up with a solution for the property owner to replace lost parking spots for his tenants.

Peters confirmed that the land swap allowed the developer to have additional parking so his property would remain whole.

The plan filed with Brookhaven Town in August 2012 shows a request for the construction of 49 parking stalls.

No other work on the property is being done at this point, according to Archer who called the expansion of the shopping center itself “phase two” of the project.

“The work you see right now is just for the parking lot,” he said by phone.

Elevations obtained from Brookhaven Town show a new facade for the Pathmark shopping center and a new store on the western end of the strip mall to the left of the Pathmark.

Rumors have been circling that the additional space might be taken up by a chain restaurant. An employee of one of the stores currently in the center who spoke with us over the phone but did not provide his name said that his corporate headquarters told him the new tenant was possibly going to be an Applebee's restaurant. Residents commenting on a community Facebook page also supported the rumor.

Archer confirmed that in the future LKG wants to build an additional 17,000 to 18,000 square feet onto the strip mall but as for the rumors that Applebee's will be taking up the spot he said he had no idea where that information came from.

“I would have known about it,” he said.


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