Builder: Old Hi-Lite Diner Site Will Be Best Looking Corner in Port Jeff Station

Saying it will go from one of the worst corners in Port Jefferson Station to one of the best, developer Jim Tsunis addressed the Port Jefferson-Terryville Civic Association at their monthly meeting on Tuesday night to update members on work at the southeast intersection of Old Town Road and Route 347.

Planned for the site is and another structure to be decided later, although right now, the plan is for an office building unless the community can come up with other ideas.

Jimmy Hernandez, a representative from TD Bank, told Patch in May of 2011 that construction will begin on the store "some time this summer" and it'll take about four to five months to build.

That never happened.

In the meantime, another TD Bank has been completed this spring on a piece of property across from Heritage Park on Route 25A in Mount Sinai.

Civic vice president Laurie Green said the delay was due to a long process in getting the required permits from Brookhaven Town. Now that the permits are in, it seems that construction crews have broken ground and building is under way.

A sign on the property has been advertising that the bank is "going green." Hernandez said that means the it will be based on TD Bank's green store design and built to be an energy-efficient building, targeting LEED Gold certification.

"The store will also include a solar drive-thru canopy that will produce about 20 percent of the building’s annual energy needs," said Hernandez.

The new store will also have feature a Penny Arcade coin-counting machine for customers and Sunday hours just like other TD Banks in the area.

The property has been considered an eyesore by residents since the Hi-Lite Diner burned to the ground back in January 2010. Since that time, a wooden structure left on the property was resulting in the arrest of two people.

Tsunis said that a 14,000 square foot office building planned for the site adjacent to the bank is still open for debate, asking the civic members for input into what the community would like to see built there. Other ideas included a drug store although across the intersection there already exists a .

“He would like suggestions from the community as to what we would like to go there,” said Green.

She also said that civic members are working on the details for a sign donated by Tsunis as a token of his appreciation for community support for the project.

“Jim offered to purchase a much desired ‘Welcome to Port Jefferson Station-Terryville’ sign,” said Green. “Our Beautification Committee has worked hard in coming up with a suitable design and together they will build an equally appealing landscape design to bring that intersection to life.”