THE renaissance of this South Shore village — which began in 1999 with the reconfiguration of an old vaudeville house as the Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts, and was marked in 2011 by the opening of ArtSpace, a loft-style affordable rental building for artists with a ground-floor gallery — carries on apace. On a sunny morning last month at Four Corners, as the intersection of West Main Street and North Ocean Avenue is called, a wrecking ball slammed into the facade of the long-vacant Swezey’s department store, shattering an antique mural depicting the century-old shop in its heyday.
The “building breaking” was a symbolic gesture signaling the official start — after six years of planning — of work on the $100 million-plus New Village at Patchogue, an eclectic 291-unit residential rental development designed to “weave into the fabric of the community,” said Robert Loscalzo, the chief operating officer of the Tritec Real Estate Company of East Setauket, the developer.
The four-acre site will be encircled by one five-story and three four-story buildings with pitched roofs; varying setbacks; brick, siding and stone facades; Juliet balconies; and a clock tower. “It will be a transformative project for the village,” said Paul V. Pontieri Jr., the mayor. “It will provide the energy that a downtown like Patchogue needs to keep moving forward.”
James L. Coughlan, a principal of Tritec, cited “a massive demand” for rentals among young professionals in the area, given that only 17 percent of current housing on the Island is rental.
Even so, apartments in the main five-story residential building will be designed for potential conversion to condominiums, Mr. Loscalzo said. The building is to have a tower reminiscent of the one that hallmarked the Swezey emporium.
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