May 19, 2026 · Updated May 19, 2026
Gov. Kathy Hochul's office named Heatherwood Communities LLC the designated developer for a 13-acre state-owned former airplane factory on Conklin Street in East Farmingdale, where neighbors have watched the property sit derelict since the 1990s. The Town of Babylon is now preparing a Generic Environmental Impact Statement covering a new 113-acre Overlay Zoning District that includes both the state parcel and an adjacent private site.
New York State tapped Heatherwood Communities LLC to redevelop a 13-acre former airplane factory on Conklin Street in East Farmingdale into 495 mixed-income apartments, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced this spring.
The project will convert one of the most visible derelict sites in Babylon into housing at a moment when Suffolk County carries roughly three months of rental and for-sale inventory — half the level economists consider balanced. The site went dark after airplane manufacturing operations closed in the 1990s, leaving a chain-link perimeter and crumbling pavement that have framed the Route 110 corridor for a generation.
The 13-acre parcel sits between Broadhollow Road/Route 110 to the west and the Long Island Rail Road's Farmingdale branch line to the north, with Conklin Street forming the southern edge. Heatherwood Communities LLC, a Long Island-based company with rental properties across Nassau and Suffolk, won a competitive selection process run by the governor's office and New York State Homes and Community Renewal.
Heatherwood's plan includes a mix of market-rate and income-restricted apartments, public open space, and environmental remediation of industrial contamination from the manufacturing era. The company has not released a final breakdown of income tiers or a construction start date.
Farmingdale LIRR station sits roughly one mile east on Conklin Street. A peak-hour train to Penn Station runs about 45 minutes, a transit link the state cited as a key factor in the site selection.
The Conklin Street parcel is one piece of a larger rezoning. The Town of Babylon has proposed an East Farmingdale Overlay Zoning District covering roughly 113 acres, which includes a private parcel owned by KRC Acquisition Corp. adjacent to the state-owned land.
A second residential proposal within the overlay area — separate from Heatherwood's project — calls for 264 rental units: 228 one-bedrooms and 36 two-bedrooms, plus a 6,475-square-foot community building, a 25-by-45-foot outdoor pool, and a pump station. That project is on its own site-plan track.
To evaluate combined impacts, the Town is preparing a Generic Environmental Impact Statement under state environmental law. The NYSDEC published the notice on March 25, 2026. The process requires public scoping and comment periods before construction can advance on any parcel in the overlay area.
Heatherwood must complete a detailed environmental site assessment before breaking ground, addressing contamination left by decades of industrial use. Cleanup timelines on Long Island's former manufacturing properties typically run 12 to 24 months, putting a realistic construction start at late 2027 at the earliest.
Neighbors who have walked past the fenced perimeter toward the Route 110 bus stop have passed the same rusted chain-link and uncut brush for 30 years. The crumbling pavement and empty shell of the former factory building became a fixed feature of East Farmingdale's streetscape — an industrial remnant that outlasted the manufacturing economy that built it. That landscape is now, finally, set to change.
The East Farmingdale selection is part of a broader Hochul administration push to convert dormant state-owned properties into housing without requiring new municipal rezonings. Since 2023, the governor's office has targeted former mental health facilities, military surplus land, and transit-adjacent state holdings for mixed-income development across New York.
Suffolk's median single-family sale price reached $700,000 in early 2026, a 6.9 percent jump year over year. Rentals in East Farmingdale currently average $2,100 to $2,600 per month for a one-bedroom. Heatherwood's income-tier breakdown — once the financing structure is finalized through HCR — will determine how many middle-income residents can actually access the new apartments.
The Town of Babylon Planning Board is expected to schedule public hearings on the Generic EIS this summer, though no dates have been formally noticed. Residents who want to weigh in on density, traffic, stormwater management, or the scope of environmental cleanup can track the agenda at townofbabylonny.gov.
KRC Acquisition Corp. has not publicly disclosed its plans for the adjacent private parcel. Any KRC proposal would require separate environmental review under the overlay framework. Babylon town officials did not respond to a request for comment.
