Bay Shore business owner: Revitalization has been ‘positive influence’

There is a plan to revitalize a Suffolk County downtown area by adding hundreds of new apartments.
Bay Shore's Main Street has undergone a major revitalization, and because of it, business owners like Gina Jaworowski say business is booming.
Her restaurant Milk & Sugar reopened as Barn Door 49 after 19 years.
"We became Barn Door because the revitalization has been such a positive influence on me wanting to do more and see the future of what Main Street can be,” she says.
Jaworowski says that when she opened Milk and Sugar in 1998, it was a seedy, scary area.
Town of Islip Supervisor Angie Carpenter says that she's spent the past 25 years fielding complaints from residents aiming to make the area more welcoming.
"When are you doing something about the dirty book store? When are you doing something about the horrible movie theater and when are you doing something about the Paradise Lounge? And these are places that are all gone now,” says Carpenter.
Now, developers want to bring a 600-unit rental housing to the area..
"There is a market for additional housing, multifamily housing for the downtown area. Which will help fuel the growth of restaurants and bars and really a successful revitalization,” says Eric Alexander, of Vision Long Island.
Town Supervisor Carpenter says all development will be studied to ensure it wouldn't affect the area negatively.
"Part of the environmental process is the effect on traffic, schools and everything else that could be impacted high density,” she says.
Business owners like Jaworowski welcome housing and the business it will bring.
"I'm here 19 (years) and I hope to be here another 19 as many store owners wish the same,” says Jaworowski.