Station Yards opens Phase 2B, adding 175 homes in Ronkonkoma

Ronkonkoma’s Station Yards added 175 more homes on June 9, but the bigger story for Suffolk County renters is what those homes cost. The Core’s new Phase 2B is part of a market-rate buildout beside the Long Island Rail Road station, where current listings start around $2,105 for studios and rise above $5,000 for larger units.

TRITEC Real Estate Company marked the grand opening of the latest phase as another step in a 53-acre transit-oriented development that is supposed to function like a real downtown, not just a cluster of apartments. Phase 2B also brings 14,000 square feet of retail space and a new parking structure, adding to a project that already includes residential buildings, restaurants and other commercial space around one of Long Island’s busiest rail hubs.

Station Yards is planned for 1,450 apartments, 195,000 square feet of retail, 360,000 square feet of office space and a hotel. Empire State Development has described it as a $1.2 billion project built around the Ronkonkoma station, and H2M architects + engineers has said the station is Suffolk County’s busiest and the second-busiest on Long Island. Station Yards materials say about 17,000 commuters head west toward Penn Station each day from Ronkonkoma, which helps explain why the site has become such a focal point for growth.

For renters, though, the economics are clear: the newest homes are aimed at people able to pay for new construction near rail, not at households looking for lower-cost options. The Core’s Phase 2 is being marketed with studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, and current listings on the property show rents that put it in the upper tier of the Suffolk market. That means the project expands supply near transit, but it does not appear to address the county’s broader affordability crunch.

The project’s footprint also keeps widening. The first phase, Alston Station Yards, delivered 489 units in 2020, while the earlier Core phase added 388 apartments and more than 80,000 square feet of retail and office space. Station Yards says 89% of the 67,000 square feet of retail already built is leased to 19 tenants, including Great South Bay Brewery, Redefine Meals, Poki Poke, Vespa Italian Kitchen & Bar, Bethpage Federal Credit Union and the Tap Room.

Phase 2B sits on about 3.9 acres of largely blighted land bounded by Railroad Avenue, Hawkins Avenue, Union Street and Garrity Avenue. That location, and the added parking, show the pressure point at the heart of the project: more residents, more shoppers and more activity around the station, but also more demand on roads, lots and local infrastructure as Ronkonkoma is reshaped into one of Suffolk’s most closely watched growth centers.