The Port TIMES RECORD Port Jefferson • Belle terre • Port Jefferson station • terrYVille
Volume 28, No. 24
May 14, 2015
$1.00
Razing the roof ‘Seeds’ art exhibit honors LT Cherokee
Also, Fleece & Fiber Fair returns, Cinema Arts Centre to host Student Film Festival, ‘Full Monty’ at CMPAC
PAGE B13
Photos by Elana Glowatz
above and below right, Mayor Margot Garant tears into a building on texaco avenue in upper Port to make way for apartments. Below left, ryan Gitto arrives at a groundbreaking ceremony prepared to work.
From Korea to Comsewogue
Teen gets taste of American life
PAGE A3
BY elana Glowatz
Officials broke ground Monday morning on a housing complex many hope will spur redevelopment in uptown Port Jefferson. After four years of plans and approvals, developer Rail Realty LLC can get started on demolishing homes and buildings along Texaco Avenue to make
way for 74 rental apartments, a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. The Hills at Port Jefferson apartments will be constructed as two three-story buildings on several parcels along that street: One building will take the place of two vacant houses and the former Port Jeff Auto Spa car wash on the north half of Texaco, close to Sheep Pasture Road; while the other
will be built in what is now a grassy field at the intersection with Linden Place. Resident parking will be underground, with a final parcel on the south side of Texaco and Linden, currently holding Stony Brook Electric Inc., to be used for additional parking. “This is the beginning of a renaissance and a jump-start to upper Port Jefferson,” Rail Realty
principal Tony Gitto said at the groundbreaking ceremony, after digging into the earth at the grassy field. The shovel work was followed up on the car wash property next door, where Mayor Margot Garant climbed into an excavator and took the first crack at taking apart the building there. Cement crunched as she closed APARTMENTS continued on page A14