Suffolk County seeks new developer for stalled Ronkonkoma Hub project

Suffolk County has reopened one of Long Island’s biggest development questions by seeking a new developer for the Ronkonkoma Hub, the county-owned land in Ronkonkoma in the Town of Islip, between Long Island MacArthur Airport and the Ronkonkoma Long Island Rail Road station. The search follows County Executive Edward P. Romaine’s decision in January 2025 to terminate Jones Lang LaSalle as master developer for the $2.8 billion Midway Crossing proposal. For residents and commuters, the issue is whether the county can finally turn a long-promised transit-oriented site into housing, jobs and a stronger business district around one of Suffolk County’s busiest rail anchors.

The county’s April 2025 request for expressions of interest covered 48 acres just south of the station. Suffolk received only three submissions: Ronkonkoma-based Tritec Real Estate, Syosset-based Blumenfeld Development Group and IMEG, the Woodbury engineering firm formerly known as Cameron Engineering. The request was handled by the Suffolk County Office of Central Procurement as the county looked for a developer to lease, develop and use publicly owned parcels that sit in a prime position next to the Long Island Rail Road and the airport.

Earlier county planning documents described the Ronkonkoma Hub as a mixed-use transit-oriented development with 1,450 multifamily units, 360,000 square feet of commercial space and 195,000 square feet of additional space. That scale would have made the project one of the most consequential county-controlled redevelopment opportunities on Long Island, with the potential to add housing close to transit, draw retail and office activity to the station area and shape traffic patterns in the surrounding Islip corridor.

Some of that redevelopment is already visible. In October 2024, Gov. Kathy Hochul marked the grand opening of Station Yards, also known as the Ronkonkoma Hub, a $1.2 billion, 53-acre project around the Ronkonkoma LIRR station led by Tritec Real Estate Company. The state promoted the project as a walkable, mixed-use community that would create more than 1,400 housing units, with residential, retail and office space built around the rail station.

The remaining county-owned land now stands as the next test of whether Suffolk can complete the broader promise of a rail-centered district. If the county lands a developer with a workable plan, the site could add more homes and commercial space near transit and MacArthur Airport. If not, the Ronkonkoma Hub will remain a reminder of how difficult large public-private redevelopment can be in Suffolk County.