For a business that began with the acquisition of a 3-acre parcel in East Setauket four decades ago, brothers Bob and Jim Coughlan have since created quite a legacy.
Now with a just-unveiled succession plan that elevates the next generation of leaders at one of Long Island‘s most prolific development firms, Tritec Real Estate is poised to become a dynasty for the future.
The leadership change, announced to Tritec’s employees at a company meeting on Thursday, promotes the Coughlans’ offspring to run the firm’s day-to-day operations. Kelley Heck joins her cousin Jimmy Coughlan as co-presidents; Meaghan Coughlan becomes chief operating officer; Kevin Wylie, Bob Coughlan‘s son-in-law, is the firm’s new vice president of construction; and Shannon Coughlan is now Tritec’s associate vice president.
Bob Coughlan and Jim Coughlan are now co-chairmen and co-CEOs, working on strategic planning, raising capital and large transactions. The Coughlans said they took a deliberate approach to their succession plan, which was a multi-year initiative.
“It’s not like we just went and did it,” said Jim Coughlan. “We spent a week up at MIT with the Cambridge Financial Family Enterprise Group, and then we’ve engaged them for the past three years. They have a team that consults with family businesses.”
While Tritec’s leadership transition is centered on family, Bob Coughlan said the company’s other executives and employees will continue to play a crucial role in the firm’s growth.
“We have a fantastic team in place at Tritec,” he said. “They’re senior executives and leadership and young people coming along that are very talented that we’re going to be fostering their growth as well. So, I want to make sure it’s not just family, because we have a fantastic team.”
So far, it’s been quite a ride. The family’s first experience with the real estate industry began in the 1970s, when Bob and Jim’s dad Robert Coughlan ran The Westport Company, a Connecticut-based real estate investment trust that focused on the mortgage business. It was Robert Coughlan and his partner, attorney Marvin Olshan, who sold Bob and Jim Coughlan their first property, a 3-acre parcel at 31 Research Way in East Setauket, the beginning of what would eventually become the 100-acre Stony Brook Technology Center.
“He was always kind of our guide and mentor in going through the process,” said Bob Coughlan, who was an analyst and funds raiser for a Manhattan securities firm. “We learned a lot from him about finances when we were starting up.”
The Coughlans said the impetus for much of their business model was the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which enacted rules to restrict taxpayers from using paper losses on real estate and other tax shelters to offset unrelated, active income. When investors could no longer count on those things for tax write-offs, the Coughlans, barely in their mid-20s, decided they would create real estate vehicles for investors to put their money into.
“We went out and raised some money from Bob’s old boss,” said Jim Coughlan, who started out as a construction lender for Manufacturers Hanover. “He brought in 59 limited partners at $20,000 a pop. We raised $1.3 million and he became a one-third partner for the first few projects.”
That was the origin of Tritec Real Estate, the umbrella company of Tritec Development Group, Tritec Building Company and Tritec Asset Management. In the first few years, the company developed three buildings totaling about 93,000 square feet on a combined 10 acres at the Stony Brook Technology Center, with Stony Brook University Hospital leasing the bulk of the space. Over 22 years, the 100-acre business park grew to 28 buildings, seven of which are still owned by Tritec.
Also early on, Tritec had an office in Westport, Conn. and the firm developed a few projects in the Nutmeg State, including the construction of the high-end Richards apparel store on a downtown Greenwich block.
Besides its own early development projects, about half of Tritec’s work through the firm’s first couple of decades involved offering third-party construction and property management services. The company served as construction manager for the $75 million Jefferson’s Ferry senior housing project in South Setauket, while also providing construction management services for a dozen Long Island hotels, three USPS distribution facilities and many other developments.
Meanwhile, Tritec stepped up its development game, acquiring property at major north/south intersections of the Long Island Expressway. The firm developed a 140,000-square-foot build-to-suit industrial project for Anorad at Exit 68, a nursing home, daycare and hotel at Exit 63, and two office buildings totaling 408,000 square feet on about 19 acres at 100 and 102 Motor Parkway in Hauppauge.
After creating the Town of Brookhaven’s Sewer District #1 to service the Stony Brook Technology Center, Tritec later created the town’s Sewer District #2, to service development around its Yaphank properties.
In 2005, Tritec opened an office in Washington D.C., run by Bob and Jim Coughlan’s brother Dan, who serves as president of Tritec’s Mid-Atlantic region. That’s where Tritec developed its first big residential project, a 140-unit apartment building and a portend of the company’s evolving focus on multifamily.
Also in 2005, Tritec acquired over 400 acres in northern Virginia, where the company is developing a massive mixed-use project with 2,400 residential units, more than 4 million square feet of office space, 473,000 square feet of retail, and 570 hotel rooms.
A year or two later, Tritec eyed a blighted and underperforming downtown in the Village of Patchogue, acquiring 6 acres to embark on the company’s then biggest and most transformative Long Island development. Completed in 2014, the $112 million New Village brought 291 apartments over 45,000 square feet of retail and 17,000 square feet of office space. But it also served as the catalyst for Patchogue’s now celebrated downtown revitalization, spurring the opening of dozens of new businesses, and proving to local skeptics that Long Island can handle density done right and in the right places.
“It wasn’t only great for Patchogue. It was great for Long Island, particularly Suffolk County because I think elected officials recognize that revitalizing your downtown is not the third rail politically,” said Bob Coughlan. “Paul (Pontieri) won the next election in a landslide. He’s won every election since then and ran unopposed.”
The success of New Village led to other municipalities seeking similar projects to boost their downtowns, and Tritec answered the call. In early 2018, the company completed a 112-unit development called The Shipyard. The $45 million project replaced a rundown 53-room motel that last occupied a 3.67-acre harbor-front site at 201 West Broadway in Port Jefferson. In Oct. 2021, Tritec cut the ribbon on The Wel, a $103 million transit-oriented development that brought 260 apartments to a 7-acre site directly across the street from the Lindenhurst Long Island Rail Road station.
In May 2024, Tritec opened Shoregate, a 418-unit transit-oriented development built on the 10.34-acre former site of Touro College in Bay Shore. The $174 million project has been a key piece in the ongoing revitalization of Bay Shore’s downtown.
After the Town of Brookhaven designated Tritec as master developer to reimagine more than 50 acres around the Ronkonkoma LIRR station in 2012, the developer began planning its most transformative project yet. Tritec is now eight years into constructing the $1.3 billion walkable, mixed-use mecca known as Station Yards. So far, the company has delivered 1,052 apartments, 70,000 square feet of retail and 16,500 square feet of office space, which is now Tritec’s new headquarters.
The massive undertaking, which still has more phases to come, has created more than 2,500 construction jobs, with Tritec spending about $130 million on project infrastructure, including $40 million for one of the largest-ever forced sewer mains and a pump station.
Going forward, Tritec may launch a project in downtown Smithtown, where it has been named master developer, and the company is actively looking at multiple development sites in Nassau County.
Earlier this year, Tritec created a fund with individual and institutional investors that could unlock about $1 billion in development. And now the new generation of Tritec leaders will be at the forefront of those projects.
“I think we focus on trying to build whatever the communities are looking for,” said newly minted Co-President Jimmy Coughlan. “A lot of real estate companies either build apartments or build office or build retail. We’ve done everything. Since the need for housing is so great on Long Island, that will likely be a priority.”
Whatever the future holds, the Tritec “kids” say they are grateful for the sacrifices their parents made to get them to this point, and they are determined to continue their momentum and stay true to the Tritec motto: ‘Have fun, win, be nice.’
“When you are scaling a company, the one thing that you want to protect is the people and the culture that you’ve built,” Meaghan Coughlan, Tritec’s new COO, said. “Making sure that you are scaling without losing that special sauce.”
