$160M apartment project to replace blighted Main Street site  

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Nearly 10 years in the making, a $160 million luxury apartment project is now primed to transform a rundown section of Patchogue’s downtown. 

Farmingdale-based Nord Development Group, led by Joseph Rossi and Peter Ferrandino, will soon begin construction on a two-building, 455,000-square-foot residential rental complex that will bring 262 apartments to a 4.08-acre site on West Main Street. 

The development called Carriage House will replace two vacant mixed-use buildings, a vacant industrial building, an auto repair shop and a metal fabrication facility at 188-214 West Main St. 

“That end of town has been a depressed end of town since at least the 77 years I’ve been alive,” Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri told LIBN. “It’s cleaning up a mess and I’m a believer that a downtown grows when you put feet on the street, and this is 262 units. On paper it looks beautiful, and I think it will take that end of town and activate it. Across the street you have the Blue Point Brewery and the YMCA, so it caps that end of town, which is the western entrance into the village.” 

The project’s two five-story buildings are bisected by the northern end of the Patchogue River, and the plan includes a reclamation of the waterway and a new riverwalk and park area spanning 32,570 square feet. The buildings also provide on-site parking for 410 cars on the ground level.  

Amenities at each Carriage House building include a fitness center, resort-style pool, hot tubs, sundeck with cabanas and firepits, gaming tables, landscaped terraces, co-working space and yoga room. The east building also features a sauna and cold plunge, chef’s kitchen and dining room and a bar and lounge with fireplace and grand piano. The west building, a portion of which is designed to mimic a village carriage house that’s occupied the western end of the development site for more than a century, sports a formal library, pet spa, golf simulator and a bike share in its garage. It will also have a grab-and-go store offering sandwiches and drinks. 

With 108 apartments in the building on the east side of the river and 154 in the building on the west side, the development will have a total of 49 studios, 141 one-bedroom units and 72 two-bedroom units. The apartments at the Carriage House will have 9-foot to 12-foot ceilings, balconies, in-unit washer and dryer, high-end kitchens, walk-in closets and more. 

“Patchogue presents such a unique opportunity for the multifamily sector and for housing and we know it’s a real need anywhere on Long Island,” Ferrandino said. “We’re very excited to bring the level of sophistication to Patchogue at the entrance of the village to make a statement and equally excited to fill a void within the community and provide housing and apartments. Also to uplift what we would consider an area that’s a little bit rundown as it sits today.” 

There will be 26 apartments designated as workforce housing for households earning less than 120 percent of the area median income and 27 apartments designated as affordable for households earning less than 80 percent of the AMI. 

Monthly rents for the market rate apartments will range from $2,700 to $4,000, while the monthly rents for the workforce units will range from about $2,000 to $3,000 and the monthly rents for the affordable units will range from about $1,900 to $2,500. 

Besides the river restoration, the project includes rerouting and upgrades to Patchogue’s sewer system and office space leased to the Patchogue Chamber of Commerce for $1 a year. According to a cost benefit analysis by Grow America, the Carriage House development will provide $28.5 million in public benefits and an increase of about $16.6 million in new municipal taxes over two decades, adding up to about $40 million. The project will also create an estimated 310 construction jobs. 

The developers are currently working with the Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency on a package of economic incentives. 

The Carriage House project is a partnership between Nord and Acre Management, a global real estate private equity firm. Key collaborators include Water Mill-based LaGuardia Landscape Architects, Andrew Saggese of Ronkonkoma-based Emtec Consulting Engineers and Andrew Nee of VHB in Hauppauge. 

Rossi and Ferrandino founded Nord Development Group in April 2023. Ferrandino is also a principal of Ferrandino & Son in Farmingdale, a general contracting and development firm that also serves as property manager for 40,000 properties across the country. 

Rossi, a former commercial real estate broker, spent six years with Southern Land Company, and was involved in the development of 300 apartments in Hauppauge and Garden City, as well as $2 billion of multifamily projects in the Northeast. 

“Nord Development Group at baseline has a culture of kindness, and we believe in being good stewards to the community, and creating meaningful spaces,” Rossi told LIBN. “We believe that spaces should provide a level of authentic comfort with meticulous construction and really create a sense of community in all of the projects that we do.” 

Construction on the Carriage House project is expected to start in about 90 days and will take about two years to complete. The developers are anxious to get started. 

“To bring a vibrant project and totally change what we consider a blighted spot is really a transformation piece and I think that’s what’s got us so excited,” Ferrandino said. “The village is genuinely excited, and the community outreach has been strong for us. So, when you add those elements up, it’s just a wonderful success story that we’re super excited to embark on.”