Take a photo tour of Suffolk’s boomtown — Patchogue Village

During the recent town political debates at the Suffolk Theater, Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter mentioned the once-beleaguered Patchogue Village on the South Shore as a potential model for downtown Riverhead.

The renovation and 1999 reopening of the Patchogue Theater is widely credited with helping the village make its turnaround.

After the theater opened, bars, restaurants and more retail shops followed.

The village became a destination.

Then came a housing boom, with blocks upon blocks of townhouses being built south of the Main Street area in recent years, along with the “Artspace” a mixed-use project, and another four-story building housing shops and apartments on Main Street.

In 2011, the Patchogue YMCA opened, greeting visitors coming from the west. Next door to the YMCA is a rehabbed mill that’s now home to an Ultimate Fitness and classroom space for Briarcliffe College.

All this is being punctuated by the building of a sprawling, $100 million mixed-use project called “New Village at Patchogue.”

Photos by News-Review editor Michael White.