Mount Sinai's Old King Kullen Corner Will Look Finished Before It Opens

"Before, it was like a ghost town for a while," the owner of a salon and spa that has been at the property for 14 years told Newsday this summer. He was describing the shopping center at Route 347 and Crystal Brook Hollow Road in the years after its supermarket went dark. In the same article he said traffic to the property had picked up even with construction underway.

Over the next few months that corner will start to look like a finished place. The owner expects the building exteriors and site work to be substantially done by the end of 2026, with final paving, landscaping and signage following by spring 2027. Whole Foods and the other new tenants come later, opening through 2027 and into 2028. So this winter you'll be driving past a center that looks new while most of what's open inside is the same group of local businesses that kept it going through the vacant years.

Seven years with an empty anchor

King Kullen closed here in June 2019, and its space has been empty ever since. The center covers 131,779 square feet on a 14.57-acre site and was built in the late 1980s. At the Town of Brookhaven planning board's December hearing, Regency's representatives said it had barely changed since then. Rite Aid then left the first floor of the two-story building on the property in 2025, opening a second large vacancy.

Regency Centers, a real estate investment trust based in Jacksonville, Florida, bought the property in January 2026 for $30 million from United Properties Corp. of East Meadow, according to the deed Newsday found. It renamed the center Crystal Brook Corner. Site work and some demolition began in March. In June, Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Jane Bonner joined the project team at a groundbreaking that the Town of Brookhaven announced on June 15, 2026.

The budget grew a lot along the way. Regency's July 2025 land use application to the town estimated the redevelopment at $15 million. Regency's first-quarter 2026 earnings report put it at $59 million. When Newsday asked why, the company declined to say, including whether the larger figure counts the purchase price. Either way, a $15 million refresh became a much bigger project in about nine months.

Where every square foot is going

Here is how the redevelopment maps onto the property, based on what Regency told Newsday in July:

Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, confirmed in January that the grocer would open a store here. TBR News Media reports it will be the chain's ninth location on Long Island. The closest recent one opened in Holbrook in March.

The other signed tenants all come from outside the hamlet, at very different scales. Nothing Bundt Cakes is a Dallas-based chain with more than 600 U.S. shops, four of them on Long Island. PACFE Nails & Spa is a Long Island chain with three locations. BYou Laser Clinic has five, including one in Manhasset. Regency has said it wants a mix of national, regional and local businesses, with boutique fitness, restaurants, and personal and pet services all in the target mix.

The two restaurant pads are the open question. Regency spokeswoman Chelsea DuDeVoire told Newsday the company has had "strong interest from both national and local restaurants for this building, given its prime location at the entrance to the center," but isn't ready to name anyone. Regency's own property page still shows both quick-service spaces without operators.

The town fixed up the same block

While Regency works on the property, the public side of the same corner has already changed. On September 21, 2026, Brookhaven Highway Superintendent Daniel P. Losquadro announced that 16 decorative streetlights were finished on the westbound side of Route 25A from Crystal Brook Hollow Road to the Route 347 divide, and on the eastbound side of Route 347 from Crystal Brook Hollow Road to the divide.

That is the stretch running right along the shopping center. The town's announcement calls the area "the downtown area of Mount Sinai." The project came in under budget at about $125,000 for design and construction, all of it paid for by Suffolk County's JumpSTART grant program.

The money came through the business community. "The Mt Sinai-Miller Place Chamber of Commerce is honored to have secured the JumpSTART grant money and designate it for this beautification project," said Chamber President Holly Bottiglieri, adding that "our vision moving forward is that we can obtain additional funding for installation of streetlights further down the corridor of 25A." The town has applied for two more grants through the program.

So the corner is getting work from three directions this year: a REIT rebuilding the property, a county grant paying for the streetscape, and a local chamber that picked this block as the place to spend it. The streetlights are the only piece already finished.

What's open right now

Most of the center's current tenants are locally owned small businesses. Newsday names The Wine Authority, Rocco's Pizzeria & Ristorante, Mt. Sinai Bagel & Deli, Taco Island Mexican Cantina and the 14-year salon and spa as current tenants, and its July photos show many shops operating while work went on around them. Regency's current site plan keeps all five in assigned spaces.

• The Wine Authority posts hours of Monday to Thursday 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday noon to 6 p.m.
• Rocco's Pizzeria & Ristorante had online ordering open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day the week of October 19.
• Taco Island Mexican Cantina lists Suite 16 and posts hours of Sunday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 9:30 p.m.
• Mt. Sinai Bagel & Deli is listed by Newsday as a current tenant. Call ahead for hours.
• The salon and spa whose owner spoke with Newsday is still on the roster, with the owner describing the redevelopment as a much-needed improvement.

A tip for your phone's map: Newsday lists the center at 5499 Nesconset Highway, while the tenants and the town's groundbreaking notice use 5507 Nesconset Highway. The west side of the property runs along Crystal Brook Hollow Road.

Why the outside finishes first

The order of the work explains why the corner will look ready this winter before it actually is. Here is the sequence Regency has laid out:

1. By the end of 2026: building exteriors and site work substantially complete.
2. First half of 2027: Regency's second-quarter supplemental, released July 29 with data as of June 30, 2026, puts estimated initial rent commencement in this window. That is when tenants start paying rent, which is not the same as a store opening.
3. By spring 2027: interior work, final paving, landscaping and signage finished.
4. Through 2027 and 2028: Nothing Bundt Cakes, PACFE Nails & Spa and BYou Laser Clinic open in 2027, with the rest of the new tenants following on a rolling basis.

Nobody has announced an opening date for Whole Foods. TBR reported at the groundbreaking that no official date had been set. Regency's property page names Whole Foods as the anchor but gives no opening or hiring details.

Leasing has kept moving. The second-quarter supplemental put the center at 66% leased as of June 30, with 57% of project costs already spent. A month later DuDeVoire told Newsday the property was about 70% leased. The roughly 30% still open, together with the two unnamed restaurant pads, is where the next announcements are likely to come from.

The next scheduled update is Regency's third-quarter earnings call on November 6, 2026, at 11 a.m. Eastern, listed on its investor relations page.

If you own a home near the Route 347 and 25A corridor and want to know where your property stands while this corner changes, SERHANT. Port Jefferson follows these Mount Sinai projects closely and will put together a current, no-pressure valuation for you. Get Your Home Valuation.