100 new jobs have been created at the Calverton Enterprise Park during the early stages of its re-development.

Industry key to converting old Navy plant into thriving industrial park

The Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant was once a hotbed of aircraft innovation.  Navy jets were assembled, tested, and retrofitted at this facility from 1954 to 1996.  Hundreds of jobs were lost when the plant closed in 1996.

Over the last two decades the facility, now known as the Calverton Enterprise Park, has been the focus of redevelopment efforts by both the Navy and the Town of Riverhead.  Transportation innovation is once again a driving force at this location, but this time it is freight railroads that are making the difference.

Although Calverton Enterprise Park has exceptional aviation facilities and is easily accessible from four exits off the Long Island Expressway, one component was missing.  The Riverhead Town Board saw an opportunity in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The town applied for and received funding to restore a freight rail line to transform the park into a modern logistical terminal for eastern Long Island.  Freight rail access will also accelerate plans for turning the area into an industrial park.  The effects can already be seen.

In all, 100 new jobs were created during the early stages of the facility’s development.  Tenants include Riverhead Building Supply, the Alfred T. Tebbens Steel Corp., Reilly Woodworks, and Mivila Foods.

Many of these new tenants needed a new location with access to rail to meet their customers’ expectations.  For example, Mivila Foods, a New Jersey wholesale food distribution company, chose this site when it needed a Long Island satellite location that met all of the company’s requirements; especially its need for freight rail.

“From our perspective, the activation of the rail spur will have a tremendous impact on reducing food costs for our customers, as many of our suppliers utilize rail for their primary source of economical transportation,” said Ted Laoudis, President of Mivila Foods.  “By reducing the cost of food for our customers, they in turn are able to reduce prices and save the consumers money.”