Residents, Chambers Slam Islip Pines Proposal

Scared.

That’s the word Sayville business owners have used repeatedly, according to Sayville Chamber of Commerce President Bill Etts, when discussing a proposed mixed-use development on 136 acres of land in Holbrook.

“Scared that all our retail business will be sucked out of Main Street,” Etts told the Islip Town Board during a three and a half hour public hearing last Thursday on the Islip Pines project. 

Serota Properties is proposing 250 one and two-bedroom housing units, more than 400,000 square feet of retail space, a movie theater and a 1.3 million square feet of industrial space, which would include a hotel, on the land at the northeast corner of Vets and Sunrise highways.  

The project was first proposed in 2008, but stalled following the death of Nathan Serota in 2010. Now back on the town’s agenda, Serota attorney Bram Weber said Thursday’s public hearing was “28 years in the making.”

Return to top