Gyrodyne, LLC (GYRO)

[Enterprising Investor]

Gyrodyne to spend $1.1M to expand SBU space, filing shows (5/16/18)

The former defense contractor envisions development at its St. James property that would support nearby Stony Brook University.

By Nicholas Spangler

Gyrodyne will spend $1.1 million to expand space leased by Stony Brook University Hospital at its St. James property, according to recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

A lease agreement signed last year calls for the hospital to double the space it rents at the site, to more than 26,000 feet.

Former defense contractor Gyrodyne plans to wind down operations after selling most of nine lots of the 75-acre Flowerfield property near Route 25A and Mills Pond Road. The company applied to the Town of Smithtown last month for subdivision approval, but a town-ordered environmental impact study must come first and could take months or years to complete.

Gyrodyne envisions projects at the site at the Smithtown-Brookhaven town border that would be “supportive and beneficial” to the nearby university, including a 150-bed hotel with conference facilities, medical offices and assisted living facilities, according to a quarterly SEC filing released last week. The company is also seeking to reopen a closed Long Island Rail Road crossing on the east side of the property to foster “synergies” with the university, which owns properties east of the railroad tracks.

Opening that crossing to automobile traffic could mitigate the development’s impact to area roads, according to the company.

Brookhaven Town Supervisor Edward P. Romaine, however, said in a statement last month that the opening could put more traffic onto already overburdened Stony Brook Road via Development Drive. The town “is prepared to take whatever step is necessary to prevent this from happening,” Romaine said.

Smithtown officials have said little publicly about the Gyrodyne proposals, but Romaine and other Brookhaven leaders remain skeptical.

“The proposed development has the potential for significant impacts on the environment, traffic, water quality” and air quality in St. James, Head of the Harbor and the Town of Brookhaven, Romaine said in a statement last month.

Gyrodyne’s SEC filing said development would create “a beautiful, environmentally sound and amenity enriched community that wouldn’t overly burden existing infrastructure and the local community with the additional costs of public education” while adding “significant” tax base to Smithtown and Smithtown Central School District. It said nothing about potential benefits to Brookhaven.

Gyrodyne President Gary Fitlin did not respond to a request for comment.

https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/gyrodyne-stony-brook-university-1.18543404