Melville town center district eyed by developer for condominiums, apartments

A Bethpage-based company has applied to the Town of Huntington to construct more than a dozen buildings offering condos, rental units and retail shops in the recently formed Melville Town Center Overlay District.

Town Supervisor Ed Smyth said Steel 75 Maxess LLC applied to the town last month for a special-use permit and site-plan approval to build Melville Crossing. The community would be built over 16.62 acres at the northeast corner of Maxess Road and Corporate Center Drive.

This the first application the town has received for developing in the overlay district, which was approved late last year. It calls for mixed-used development in certain light-industrial areas of Melville. 

The Steel plan calls for building four four-story condominium buildings with a total of 110 units. In seven other buildings of either three or four stories, the company would build a total of 290 rental units, including 40 live / work units. The buildings with rentals would have a ground floor with retail and / or commercial space. The rental units would be a mix of studio and one-bedroom apartments with a limited number of two-bedrooms, according to Steel officials.

“I’m very pleased that the first application that came in is, for the most part, exactly how we envisioned the development progressing,” Smyth said. “In terms of what the residents and public was expecting, I think this plan hits the bull's-eye."

The proposal also includes five stand-alone retail structures that would all face the roadways.

The proposal also includes a one-story clubhouse with a pool. The community would include landscaping, surface parking and private garages, according to documents submitted to the town by Steel. 

The proposal is currently being analyzed by the town's planning department, Smyth said.  It will go to the town board, which will review it, hold a public hearing and then vote on it. 

Firm sought community input 

Russell Mohr, Steel Equities' vice president of real estate development, said the company has worked to hear from the community and the town over the last year on multiple iterations of the project.

“I think we’ve come up with a plan that is in line with the town’s vision and ultimately will create a sense of place and community in Melville and a downtown,” he said.

In a statement texted to Newsday, the Sweet Hollow Civic Association, which represents nearly 2,500 residents in the Melville area, said, “Steel equities met with the Sweet Hollow Civic board and with our community members. We appreciate their willingness to share their vision ... . They have made themselves available to answer questions and receive community input. As the application moves ahead, we look forward to continuing dialogue with them."

Mohr said the 40-year-old company owns and manages about 12 million square feet of property over 100 buildings on Long Island and in New York City.

He said the company purchased the Melville property in 2020.

Overlay district created last year

In December, the town board voted to create the Melville Town Center Overlay District, which will allow for a walkable downtown in Melville south of the Long Island Expressway, Newsday previously reported. The district ultimately could see up to 1,500 housing units.  

The proposed community would be within the Half Hollow Hills school district. In a statement to Newsday, Half Hollow Hills schools Superintendent John O’Farrell said that while the district does not endorse or approve private developments, "we appreciate Steel Equities’ willingness to consider meaningful community benefits for Half Hollow Hills. We hope the Town carefully reviews any requests for Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs) to ensure that any potential agreements protect our community from additional tax burdens."

Any PILOT would have to be issued by the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency.

Town officials unveiled the idea for the overlay district last year. It was met with mixed reviews before it passed. There are two Article 78 lawsuits pending in opposition to the approval of the district, both citing environmental concerns.