McDonald’s site work begins on Sills Road in Medford

Site work is underway on Sills Road in Medford after Brookhaven granted final site plan approval for a McDonald’s across from Sunshine Square. The parcel has already been cleared, so the change is no longer theoretical: it is visible on the ground. The project was conditionally approved last August and fully approved in February, and there is still no opening date.

The McDonald’s is part of the larger Medford Sills Development, a project that moved through town review for more than a year. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation issued a negative declaration on May 29, 2024, saying the proposal would not have a significant adverse environmental impact. That filing also said the plan called for amending restrictive covenants, authorizing town-board special permits for two major restaurants with accessory drive-throughs and one motor vehicle fueling station with an accessory convenience store, then dividing the property into four lots. Brookhaven held a public hearing on Feb. 13, 2025, on the covenant amendment.

For Medford, the immediate effect is another national chain entering a corridor that is already shifting fast. Sunshine Square, directly across from the McDonald’s site, is identified in Suffolk County planning materials as a retail center anchored by Stop & Shop. Nearby, Pickleball Heaven opened in September at 645 National Blvd. as a 60,000-square-foot indoor complex with 16 courts and a sports bar and restaurant component. A Taco Bell proposal at Sunshine Square late last year underscored how much chain-restaurant interest is concentrating around Sills Road and Patchogue-Yaphank Road.

That pattern has practical consequences for neighbors and drivers. More curb cuts, more drive-thru traffic and more turning movements are likely to put added pressure on a stretch already functioning as one of central Suffolk’s busiest commercial pockets. At the same time, the project brings another recognizable employer and another dining option to a part of Brookhaven that has been drawing steady reinvestment.

Certilman Balin, the Hauppauge land-use and zoning firm guiding the project, said the team had obtained final site-plan approval from Brookhaven’s Planning Board. In a town that is the largest in Suffolk County, even one restaurant approval can reshape how a commercial corridor looks, how cars move through it and which businesses can claim the most traffic along the strip.