Mixed Use

Uniting for Progress: Business Groups Power Community Success

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This week, Long Island Business News published an op-ed by Long Island Builders Institute CEO Mike Florio and me titled “When Business Groups Unite, Communities Win.” You can read the full piece here.

In the column, Mike and I reflect on an important lesson from this year’s Republican primaries in Huntington and Smithtown. At stake were two major initiatives: Huntington’s Melville Town Center Overlay District and Smithtown’s Kings Park revitalization. Both projects were designed to address some of our region’s most pressing challenges—creating affordable workforce housing, bringing vitality back to local downtowns, and supporting jobs in the construction trades.

For decades, there has been a perception that business interests and community interests are at odds. Too often, the debate is framed as “profits versus people.” But the reality is that responsible development and strong communities go hand-in-hand. The Melville and Kings Park projects represent the kind of forward-looking planning that benefits working Long Islanders and strengthens our economy.

Recognizing this, Long Island’s leading business organizations—including HIA-LI, the Long Island Builders Institute, the Long Island Association, the Association for a Better Long Island, the Long Island Contractors Association, and the Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island—came together to speak with one voice. By joining forces, our coalition clarified the stakes for voters and pushed back against misinformation.

The results spoke volumes. Voters supported candidates who stood for progress, workforce housing, and job creation. Huntington Supervisor Ed Smyth called the outcome a “victory of truth over lies.” Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim expressed pride in continuing to make his town “a wonderful place to raise a family.” These outcomes reinforce a simple but powerful truth: when business organizations unite, communities benefit.

The lesson extends far beyond these two towns. Long Island still faces significant challenges—housing shortages, aging infrastructure, and the need to retain young talent while supporting middle-class families. None of these issues can be addressed in silos. But when business groups align around shared priorities, our message carries further and our communities grow stronger.

At HIA-LI, we believe collaboration is not just a strategy but a responsibility. By working together, we can advocate for policies that create opportunity, foster innovation, and ensure Long Island remains a place where the next generation can build their future.

Read the full op-ed in Long Island Business News here.

Action By HIA-LI Members Helps Secure Long Island’s Future

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Amid the doldrums of the COVID-19 pandemic, HIA-LI members have good reason to pat themselves on the back this year.

Why? Because our organization’s members played a central role in advocating for a public policy victory that will serve, according to Newsday, as a “building block for our region’s future.”

That victory occurred in August, when the Smithtown Town Board voted unanimously to greenlight a “zoning overlay” allowing mixed-used development at the 1,650-acre Long Island Innovation Park in Hauppauge (LI-IPH), formerly known as Hauppauge Industrial Park. The idea for a “zoning overlay” had arisen from a 160-page strategic analysis issued in April 2019. The analysis, commissioned by HIA-LI in cooperation with the Suffolk IDA and others, had enumerated ways to strengthen the Park’s future.

The Town’s decision came in the aftermath of an organized campaign – undertaken by HIA-LI members and many others – to help educate Board members regarding the merits of the change.

Thanks to new development opportunities made possible through the revised zoning rules­­­, one of Long Island’s most respected real estate developers, TRITEC of East Setauket, stepped forward in November and proposed to build a $125-million, mixed-use building with 335 apartments in the Park. The venue would be a development parcel at 49 Wireless Boulevard that TRITEC owns through a subsidiary. The “zoning overlay” opens the door for similar mixed-use projects at twelve other Park sites.

Long Island municipalities like the Town of Smithtown are recognizing the need to take bold steps to promote regional economic development and to help stem the hemorrhaging of young workers from Nassau and Suffolk. 

The Town – under the leadership of Supervisor Ed Wehrheim – understands that mixed-use development like this represents a “building block” for creating a better tomorrow for our area. Such measures boost our economic competitiveness by supporting workforce attraction and retention. In July 2019, a Rauch Foundation survey conducted for Newsday found that 67 percent of Long Islanders aged 18 to 34 years planned to leave the region within five years.

Can you imagine? Such an exodus would seriously disable the Long Island economy and make it highly difficult for Park employers to hire and keep a skilled workforce.

In a November 29 editorial, Newsday called the new Smithtown policy “a prime example of what’s possible” when Long Island municipalities act creatively to re-envision our region’s future.

So, bravo to the members of HIA-LI for helping to create a new model for fortifying Long Island’s long-term competitiveness.  And a special thanks to our LI-IPH Task Force, headed by HIA-LI Board Chair Joe Campolo, Managing Partner at Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP.

Read the complete Newsday editorial here.