Homebuilders move forward with 47 houses in Rocky Point

A pair of Suffolk County homebuilders has started construction in Rocky Point on one of the largest subdivisions of new homes on Long Island in decades.

Terra Construction Group held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday, with local elected officials voicing support, as it starts the first phase of a planned 37-home subdivision, where prices range from about $750,000 to just under $1 million.

The builder already has buyers under contract for 14 of the houses and plans to start pouring foundations for many of those homes later this month, said Joseph Picataggi Jr., a principal at Port Jefferson Station-based Terra Construction Group.

Need for housing

The project, built on a 35-acre site off North Country Road near Hallock Landing Road, will hit the market as buyers are struggling with an inadequate supply of houses for sale, which has fueled competition and bidding wars.

“At a time when Long Island continues to face significant housing shortages, projects like Rocky Point Estates play an important role delivering much needed homes to the market,” Picataggi said.

Terra is building the majority of the houses in the latest iteration of the Rocky Point Estates project, which Newsday reported in October would be developed by local builders Frank Meehan and Kathy Santomero-Meehan as a 47-house subdivision.

Under the new plan, Terra purchased 37 of the lots for $9.6 million, while the Meehans plan to develop the remaining 10. The Meehans’ portion of the project will include nine ranches, starting at $589,000 in the same community, as well as an existing two-story model home on the site.

The Meehans previously transformed the hilly site, leveling the land to offer future buyers’ flat backyards. 

Community input

They had originally planned larger homes, priced at $800,000 and above, but scaled back in part because community members said they wanted more affordable options. Nine of the 10 homes will be three-bedroom, two-bathroom ranches, Frank Meehan said.

“I want to listen to the people in this neighborhood and say, ‘We heard you, so here it is.’”

Kathy Santomero-Meehan described to Newsday last year how she has battled cancer through the development process after a physician told her in 2018 she had just three weeks to live. Years later, Santomero-Meehan continues to work on the project as she receives treatment.

She's hopeful, with the scaled back plan, the couple will be able to build the nine houses in the next year.

“We’re looking forward to getting the production going,” she said.

The majority of buyers so far have opted to use construction loans to finance building themselves rather than buying homes from Terra once they’re completed, said Bryan Karp, a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker American Homes, who is marketing all 47 houses.

That option allows buyers to customize features, such as siding color, window patterns and finishes, rather than accepting the builder’s choices. 

Terra's new homes are priced well above other homes in the area. The median sale price of a single-family home in Rocky Point rose 10.4% last year to $529,750 in the second half of 2025, according to data from real estate analyst Jonathan Miller. That was the third-lowest price among 156 communities on Long Island included in the report.

But those lower prices help drive competition, with two-thirds of houses that sold during the second half of last year, selling for above the asking price — a trend also seen in other affordable Suffolk County areas.

The custom homes, with brand new roofs and windows, will stand apart from the resale market of existing homes in Rocky Point and help Terra command high prices, Karp said.

“You get to design your own home,” Karp said. “It’s a process a lot of young buyers -- and even older buyers — love.” 

Site's long history

The vacant land has long been coveted by developers, including Fairfield Properties, which had previously tried to build rental apartments or a 55-and-over community on the property, starting in 2001, but met fierce resistance from community members.

“That went over like a lead balloon,” said Jane Bonner, a Brookhaven Town councilmember and Rocky Point homeowner, who opposed the project at the time as a member of the Rocky Point Civic Association.

“At the end of the day, we are in the suburbs and homes are what is appropriate here,” Bonner said.

Bonner and other local officials praised the developers on Wednesday for setting aside five acres of open space.

“This doesn’t really exist on Long Island anymore — a large tract of land like this," she said. "They’ve taken great care [to preserve] open space in this development. It’s not a mini-Levittown."

Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico said the 14 houses that have already found buyers show there’s demand for houses in the area. 

“This community did not want to see multifamily,” Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico said. “They wanted to see single-family residential development, so we were able to work with the developer and set aside five acres, but when people own property, they have property rights.”