Kings Park Revitalization Plan Moves to Action in Smithtown

York Hall at Nissequogue River State Park will become a performing arts and community venue after New York State committed $1.5 million to its restoration this February, the clearest sign yet that Kings Park's $10 million downtown overhaul is moving from blueprints into construction.

The funding is part of a Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant that Governor Kathy Hochul awarded Smithtown in 2024, targeting the Pulaski Road corridor near the Long Island Rail Road station for transit-oriented rezoning. The plan allows mixed-use buildings up to three stories and 40 feet in the core business district, the biggest zoning change the hamlet has seen in decades.

The Smithtown Town Board closed its final public comment period in early 2025, drawing business owners, residents, and civic groups who had spent two years debating the hamlet's direction. Most speakers backed the plan. A handful of local officials pushed back on the density provisions, arguing that permitting apartment buildings in a traditionally commercial zone would change Kings Park's character.

"This was long overdue," said a Pulaski Road shop owner who has watched storefronts cycle through short-lived tenants since the 1990s. "We need people living here, not just passing through."

Under the adopted standards, developers can build three-story, mixed-use structures in the core district. Apartment buildings are permitted in areas previously limited to commercial tenants. Sidewalks will be widened, parking layout updated, and pedestrian-scale lighting added along the main business strip near the LIRR platform.

The most prominent private project tracking the new zoning is Cornerstone Kings Park, a proposed 50-unit luxury apartment building from Tanzi Properties LLC. The firm has been monitoring the revitalization process since the DRI grant was announced and is expected to file formal applications once the town finalizes the revised code.

York Hall, a historic building inside Nissequogue River State Park on the western edge of the hamlet, is slated to anchor the plan's public amenity component. The $1.5 million state allocation covers structural preservation and interior renovation to support concerts, theater, and community meetings. Planners envision visitors walking from York Hall events into the Pulaski Road restaurant and retail strip, strengthening foot traffic that has thinned over decades of suburban sprawl.

Suffolk County added $5.5 million in separate downtown small-business support grants, giving qualifying merchants a pathway to facade upgrades, equipment loans, and operational funding tied to the revitalization district.

Rep. Nick LaLota separately secured $15 million for road improvements in Smithtown and a preservation commitment for a Kings Park landmark, layering federal investment on top of the state DRI money.

Kings Park spent much of the past 30 years watching its commercial strip hollow out as big-box retail drew shoppers toward Route 25A. The LIRR station on the Port Jefferson branch draws several hundred daily commuters, but most had little reason to stop downtown. The revitalization plan is built on the premise that adding residents within walking distance changes that calculation.

Whether Cornerstone Kings Park and other pending proposals survive community review is still unsettled. Several civic groups have called for density caps to prevent the hamlet from following over-built downtowns elsewhere on the South Shore. The three-story height limit was drafted with exactly that concern in mind, and planners say it keeps new construction at the scale of the Victorian storefronts that define Kings Park's streetscape.

State economic development guidelines require municipalities to begin spending within 24 months of a DRI grant award. With the 2024 award date on the clock, Smithtown officials say they expect the Town Board to take up the final adoption vote this summer.