Jake's 58, Islandia near deal to add almost 800 parking spaces

Jake’s 58 Casino Hotel is poised to add nearly 800 new parking spaces after Islandia village officials tentatively approved the parking lot proposal this week.

The plan has been in the works for at least a year. Suffolk Regional Off-Track Betting, or OTB, bought the 8.5-acre project site from the village last September for $12.5 million. The property is vacant and sits just west of Jake’s 58, which OTB operates.

On Tuesday, Islandia’s village board unanimously approved preliminary plans to build a 779-space parking lot on that site. Construction is expected to begin by the end of next month, according to Suffolk OTB president Phil Boyle.

“Jake’s 58 is such a popular destination that parking has always been something of an issue,” Boyle told Newsday. “This new lot will greatly enhance our customer experience.”

Jake’s 58 currently has about 600 parking spaces, according to Boyle. He said the casino will have more than 2,000 spaces in the near future, including a three-story parking garage that's mostly built and awaiting village permits. 

The parking expansion coincides with a major expansion of the casino’s gambling operations.

Newsday previously reported that Jake’s 58 is doubling its betting terminals to 2,000, which involves constructing a new 110,000-square-foot facility behind the existing building that will house about 1,000 new machines. That project is expected to take roughly two years.

“We’re going to double the size of the machines, but also more than triple the number of parking spaces,” Boyle told Newsday. He added that the extra parking is also intended to accommodate those who come to Jake’s 58 to drink and eat at new on-site restaurants, rather than gamble.

OTB still needs final site plan approval from Islandia. A spokesman for the village did not immediately return Newsday's request for comment on Tuesday's vote, the project or upcoming deliberations.

Boyle expects the parking lot to receive final approvals next month after OTB makes “small” tweaks to its proposal.

OTB then needs to put out a call for developers and select a company to build the lot.

“I’m hoping to get going on it by the end of September,” Boyle said, telling Newsday the preliminary approval is “enough for us to get going” on the construction bidding process.

By Sam Kmack

sam.kmack@newsday.com

Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.