The wait is finally over.
After more than 46 years in the making, the Matinecock Court affordable housing development in East Northport will welcome its first residents in just a couple of weeks.
LIBN has learned that developers expect to receive certificates of occupancy for about half of the buildings at the limited-equity cooperative complex and other necessary final approvals by the end of the month.
The $97 million development, located on 14.5 acres on the northwest corner of Elwood Road and Pulaski Road, brings 146 residences in 17 two-story residential buildings consisting of 18 one-bedroom units, 89 two-bedroom units, 38 three-bedroom units and a two-bedroom unit for the superintendent. Eight of the units are reserved for individuals with developmental disabilities and five are set aside for veterans. The project includes a 2,500-square-foot community building with a fitness center, administrative offices and meeting areas for residents. It also has its own sewage treatment plant.
Monthly maintenance fees at Matinecock Court range from $1,300 to $2,100, depending on the size of the unit. Prospective residents have to meet income requirements that restrict ownership in the gated community to households earning between $47,000 and $95,000 a year.
“We held a lottery a couple of months ago and received over 1,000 applications for 146 units,” Peter Florey, a principal of Levittown-based D&F Development Group, which partnered with Greenlawn-based nonprofit Housing Help on the East Northport project, told LIBN.
Florey added that he expects the first move-ins at Matinecock Court in the first week of September, and once final approvals are granted for the rest of the buildings, all residents should be in by November.
“We’re confident that we have enough people for full occupancy, with a substantial waiting list,” he said. “It will likely be a 45-day process to get everyone in.”
First pitched in 1978, the East Northport development has survived multiple court challenges, one of which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, as the Town of Huntington and local residents tried in vain to derail it. The project, advanced by Housing Help, was stalled under other developers until D&F was tapped in Jan. 2021 to see it through.
“Matinecock Court represents more than just new housing, it’s the result of decades of persistence, advocacy, and community partnership to ensure that affordable housing is a reality on Long Island,” said Pilar Moya-Mancera, executive director of Housing Help. “We are grateful to D&F Development for helping bring this vision to life. When the lottery for its 146 apartments opened this summer, we received 1,000 applications—85.7% from Long Island and 32.1% from the Town of Huntington—proving the need is overwhelmingly local. Matinecock Court is not the finish line. It must be a blueprint for future projects, so we don’t wait another 45 years to meet our community’s housing needs.”
Housing advocates have hailed the opening of the project.
“We commend Housing Help and D&F Development for their perseverance in bringing Matinecock Court to the finish line,” Roger Weaving, president of the Huntington Township Housing Coalition, said in a written statement. “This attractive development stands as an excellent illustration of contemporary affordable housing.”
Weaving added that affordable housing opportunities like Matinecock Court can help stem the exodus of people leaving Long Island, and much more is needed.
“The few units of housing being created on Long Island today are overwhelmingly single-family homes, but this doesn’t meet the needs of smaller households,” he said. “When people can’t afford housing, they leave town and look for opportunities elsewhere.”
Matinecock Court is not the first limited-equity cooperative complex that D&F, headed by Florey and Leonard D’Amico, has developed. In 2017, D&F completed Long Island’s first limited-equity housing co-op called Highland Green in Melville. The $34 million project created a two-story, income-restricted, 117-townhouse community on an 8-acre site once occupied by a commercial nursery on Ruland Road. Purchasers bought into the co-ops for low down payments – from $1,880 to $2,600 – and part of their $940 to $1,300 monthly maintenance charges builds equity in the complex while helping to pay down a tax-exempt bond used to finance its construction.
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