Construction has started on The Bridge at Mineola, a $130 million mixed-use development on the former Fortunoff department store site in downtown Mineola. The project puts 232 residential units and roughly 50,000 square feet of ground-floor retail on a site that has been vacant since Fortunoff closed.

The development sits adjacent to the Mineola LIRR station — the kind of transit-adjacent location that Nassau County's hub-zone planning has been trying to activate for years. Five stories, structured parking, and a retail base designed to pull foot traffic off the train platform and into the storefronts.

This is one of the largest private development starts in Nassau County this year. For the trades, a 232-unit mixed-use building means months of structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, and finish work — and the retail component adds a second scope of fit-out behind it.

Why this matters. Downtown Mineola has been a target for transit-oriented development for years, but actual shovels in the ground have been slow to follow the zoning. This project is real construction on a real timeline. If you work on Long Island and you are not tracking it, your competitors are.

What to do next. Watch for subcontractor solicitations as the project moves past foundations. The retail component will generate its own round of fit-out bids once the shell is up.