Halpin sees rail, manufacturing at EPCAL, but key questions remain

The future of the Calverton Enterprise Park remains unsettled, with litigation still hanging over the former Grumman property and no clear redevelopment plan in place, even as Riverhead Supervisor Jerry Halpin says he wants development of the site to make use of the rail spur the town refurbished with $4.8 million in federal funds more than a decade ago.

In a March 10 interview, Halpin described freight rail and manufacturing as central to his thinking about the town-owned property, saying he wants EPCAL to be “a manufacturing hub” and “an economic engine.”

“I’m not gonna do ash or trash,” Halpin said.  “I know it’s a concern of taxpayers, because they don’t want a transfer station there or an incinerator. So, I want people to know that,” he said.  

Utilizing the rail spur would be an environmental benefit, “because we have so many semis that bring everything here, to the East End,” he said. There are already some manufacturing businesses located within the enterprise park that could utilize the rail, he said.

“I think it would also open other doors at EPCAL for manufacturers to come in and to do stuff, and to be able to rely on that,” Halpin said.

But beyond that broad framework, he offered few specifics.

“So we have some ideas, and I’ll be sharing those later about what — you know, I don’t want to kind of get out in front of that a little bit, but I’m excited about the possibility of that. I know that’s a 30,000-foot view …a big idea that has to kind of get down to the micro,” he said.

Halpin said during the interview he’s gotten favorable feedback from county and federal officials.

“I’ve talked to the county executive and the county legislator. They’re all in favor of kind of going down that path and pushing it. I’ve talked to a representative from [Sen. Chuck] Schumer’s office. They’re interested in it, because it’s going to help us as a whole island, environmentally, as far as getting the trucks off the road,” he said. 

There are still practical obstacles to restoring rail service.

“There’s some hurdles in the way of the rail,” the supervisor acknowledged. “There’s some things that have to be done through the state, through the MTA. So I think that we have to —but again, my goal isn’t just to lead for this year. My goal is to lead our town…into the future,” Halpin said. 

The rail spur’s current configuration limits its usefulness to the site as a whole. The LIRR main line runs along the southern boundary of the EPCAL site. The spur enters EPCAL in the southwest corner of the “industrial core” the town sold to developer Jan Burman,  who subdivided the property and sold lots to individual businesses. Due to the spur’s location and length, the existing siding can currently serve only the two adjacent business properties. 

The spur’s cost and limited usefulness became a bone of contention on the Town Board after Sean Walter took office as supervisor in 2010. He called it a “bridge to nowhere” and said he was “furious” the town spent more than $5 million on a rail spur that served just two businesses. 

During a September 2010 Town Board work session, Walter said he’d met with representatives from the LIRR’s authorized freight carrier, New York & Atlantic Railway and they convinced him that spending money to rehabilitate the existing old siding on the former Grumman site would be a waste of money. Walter advocated for building a new siding  — called a “runaround” — in a location more readily accessible by more EPCAL business sites, rather than putting money into rehabilitating the old siding that Grumman built 50 years earlier on a portion of the track that is effectively a “dead end.”

The rail spur project had already broken ground earlier that year, however, and the town went forward with its original plan. It accepted $4.8 million in American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds from the federal government and paid a contractor more than $3.5 million to rehabilitate the spur, plus design and engineering costs, according to the Riverhead Town Community Development Agency’s 2012 annual report. Construction was completed and the rail was ready for operation by the close of 2012, the report said. 

Walter said the town would seek additional funding for another switch inside the enterprise park so that additional track could serve more locations within EPCAL. That never materialized. 

In 2022, Calverton Aviation & Technology, then in contract to buy nearly all the town-owned vacant industrial land at EPCAL,  pitched a 400,000-square-foot rail distribution center located to the east of the inactive 7,000-foot western runway at the site, to the west of the refurbished rail spur. CAT’s proposed rail distribution center would be located in the area of a “freight village” planned by the Riverhead CDA in 2011 to take advantage of what was then the newly refurbished rail spur. CAT’s rail distribution center would be accessible from other proposed buildings situated along the two runways on the site, including eight distribution buildings ranging from 300,000 square feet to 1.44 million square feet in size, via a new internal roadway, according to CAT’s plans then before the town.

The town canceled CAT’s contract of sale in October 2023, after the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency declined to provide financial assistance to CAT for the project. CAT sued the town and the Riverhead IDA in January 2024. The litigation is still pending in Suffolk County Supreme Court, where a judge last month dismissed all but one of CAT’s causes of action. The sole claim left standing alleges that the town interfered with the Riverhead IDA’s decision-making process and influenced the agency’s decision, resulting in the denial of assistance to CAT. 

CAT has not filed a Notice of Appeal of the Feb. 28 trial court decision. Meanwhile, the town’s EPCAL property is encumbered by a notice of pendency filed by CAT, which provides public notice that a claim affecting the property’s title is pending. That effectively prevents the town from transferring title or any legal interest in the property to another party. 

Halpin said this week he expects CAT will appeal the trial court’s decision. The town may also appeal the decision as well, concerning the one claim that remains in place.

“There doesn’t seem that there’s anything holding us back right now from, at least mentally, being ready and moving forward, planning what you’re going to do,” Halpin said.

It’s not clear where the rest of the Town Board stands on the issue.

Council Member Ken Rothwell, the board’s longest-serving member — and Halpin’s opponent in this year’s election — described a broader mixed-use concept for the site that would include recreation-related uses, sports medicine, sophisticated sports training using technology, as well as design and engineering firms, along with solar arrays, agrivoltaics and possibly a hotel and conference center.

The contrast reflects a broader reality: despite years of debate, EPCAL still lacks a clearly defined future.