BABYLON, NY-Executives at the Albanese Organization and government officials hoisted shovels to break ground Wednesday on the first construction in Wyandanch Village, a 40-acre redevelopment project here. In the works for nearly a decade, the project began with a visioning process in 2004 under the leadership of Steve Bellone, then Babylon Town Supervisor and now Suffolk County Executive. Bellone was among the officials on hand for Wednesday's groundbreaking.

“As I reflect back on the past 13 years since the inception of Wyandanch Rising, many said it could not be done,” Bellone said Wednesday. “Well, we stand here today as we take a significant step forward and break ground on the first phase of mixed-use development in Wyandanch.”

The project's first phase will create a new downtown village in Wyandanch, devised with smart-growth principles and combining rental apartments and neighborhood shops clustered around a new community park and adjacent to the Long Island Rail Road station plaza. Its first two buildings, designed by Long Island based BHC Architects, feature energy-efficient apartments that will range in size from studio through three-bedroom, along with nearly 40,000 square feet of neighborhood retail space. They're designed to achieve LEED certification from the US Green Building Council.

A creative structure of public and private investment is financing construction on the development's first building at a cost of $38 million, according to a release. It includes federal and state income tax credit programs designed to promote affordable housing development through the New York State Department of Housing and Community Renewal.

Additionally, Hudson Housing Capital syndicated the low income housing tax credits to generate permanent equity to advance the project, while Capital One Bank's Community Development Financing division purchased the tax credits as an investment in the project. Capital One Bank also provided a construction loan for $29.9 million and a $13.9-million permanent mortgage.