$450M Yaphank development nears completion after 11 years

Construction of The Boulevard, a $450 million mixed-use development in Yaphank, is nearly done 11 years after work began on a long-vacant former racetrack site.

The 322-acre complex is about 95% complete, with its retail space fully leased, more than 935 rental and for-sale homes built, at least 900 people employed at the development, and annual property tax revenue projected to exceed $10 million after tax breaks expire.

The project is the Town of Brookhaven’s largest recent redevelopment, replacing vacant land with housing, stores, a hotel and medical offices.

“As the developer of this project, it is extremely gratifying to see our vision of a vibrant, walkable community become a reality,” said Brian Ferruggiari, spokesman for Rose-Breslin Associates LLC, the Yonkers-based developer of the retail, hotel and rental-home portions of the project.

Located on William Floyd Parkway just north of the Long Island Expressway at Exit 68N, The Boulevard was called the Meadows at Yaphank when construction of the mixed-use project started in 2015. The development now has 535 upscale rental apartments and about 475 high-end, for-sale condos and townhomes built or under construction, 81 more of which are expected to be finished in 2028, developers said.

Construction of Chelsea Senior Living, an assisted-living facility, and a Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel was completed on the property in 2020.

The homes and hotel connect via roadways, walkways and bike lanes to The Shoppes at The Boulevard, a shopping center anchored by a 197,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter completed in 2021.

The shopping center’s 274,887 square feet of completed retail space is fully leased, Ferruggiari said.

Among the shops is The Pizzeria, whose eighth Suffolk County restaurant opened at The Boulevard in June, said co-founder Cliff Weinstein, who said the scale of the development drew the business there.

“They built a small city out of nowhere. … I think it’s going to be turned into a destination location for people in the surrounding areas,” he said.

Housing fills quickly

Construction of the for-sale homes at The Boulevard started in 2018, said Steven Dubb, president of The Beechwood Organization, which is the Jericho-based builder of the for-sale homes.

The homes have been selling quickly, including to buyers moving to Suffolk County from Nassau County, where property taxes are generally higher, he said.

The Boulevard was pitched as a development that would help alleviate the shortage of legal rental housing on Long Island.

Though The Boulevard's housing is high-end, having more mixed-use developments like it could make older, existing housing more affordable by increasing the pool of housing options, said Kyle Strober, executive director of the Association for a Better Long Island, a developers' group based in Hauppauge.

“If recent history is any indication, this multifamily development fills immediately. One need only look at Station Yards [mixed-use development] in Ronkonkoma and The Langdon [high-end apartments] in Lynbrook to see how supply was quickly pursued by demand,” he said.

As of July 7, the rental housing vacancy rate for buildings with at least five units was 4.7% on Long Island, compared with 8.2% nationwide, according to the CoStar Group, an Arlington, Virginia-based provider of real estate information.

Anthony Durando, 32, moved from his parents' home in Smithtown to an apartment at The Boulevard with his fiancée five months ago, he said while walking his two dogs outside Wednesday evening.

The apartment’s size and the complex's amenities, including a gym and clubhouse, make the $3,100 monthly rent a good value, given the prices of other apartments he and his fiancée considered, he said.

“I mean, everywhere near Smithtown, they're either not available, too small, too expensive,” he said.

From racetrack to mixed-use development

The Boulevard is on the former site of the Parr Meadows quarterhorse racing track, which opened in May 1977 and closed 113 days later, Newsday previously reported. The racetrack reopened in 1986 as Suffolk Meadows but closed a year later.

The current development is far smaller than a 1989 proposal by Garden City developer Wilbur Breslin. Dubbed “Willy World” by opponents, that plan called for a 1.65 million-square-foot mall, up to 12,655 homes, 1.3 million square feet of office and industrial space and a hotel on 2,000 acres stretching from the Long Island Expressway north to Middle Country Road.

The plans were downsized over the years, and Breslin partnered with Allan V. Rose, owner of AVR Realty, on the proposal in 1999.

The Town of Brookhaven approved the master plan for the development in 2011.

The Boulevard development has evolved into a self-contained community, said Brookhaven Council member Michael A. Loguercio Jr., who represents District 4, which includes Yaphank.

“You can live there. You can work there if you wanted. You have access to the Long Island Expressway. You have access to the new Yaphank train station, which is going to be about five minutes away as soon as they open it,” he said.

Yaphank’s new $20 million LIRR station is expected to open in 2026 at Precision Innovation Park, about a mile east of the expressway's Exit 68 and 3 miles from the current Yaphank station off Yaphank Avenue.

Tax revenue is expected to rise

In 2014, the year before construction started on The Boulevard, Rose-Breslin Associates paid $859,498 in property taxes on the vacant land, Ferruggiari said.

Last year, the company paid $2.3 million in property taxes on the hotel, assisted-living facility and rental housing, he said, though those properties are receiving tax breaks from the Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency.

The 10-, 13- and 15-year tax-break agreements, called payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, give the developer property tax abatements that decrease annually until the deals expire in 2026, 2029 and 2035, when 100% of the property taxes will be due.

After the PILOTs expire, the overall development is projected to generate more than $10 million annually in property taxes, Ferruggiari said. About 70% will go to the Longwood Central School District.

The shopping center and non-rental homes did not receive tax breaks.

The property tax bill for the shopping center, excluding Walmart, was $491,991.70 in the 2025-2026 tax year, according to the tax portal on the Town of Brookhaven's website. Separately, Walmart paid $974,746.50.

With construction scheduled to continue through 2028 and the tax breaks expiring in stages, the development’s full economic impact will take years to emerge.

For Durando, though, its value is more immediate: It gave him an apartment near his hometown that he said he could not find elsewhere.

“We love everything about it so far," he said.

Newsday's Carl MacGowan contributed to this story.