‘Ice House’ Apartments In The Home Stretch

By Jano Tantongco

jtantongco@longislandergroup.com

The former home of the Losquadro ice house on Stewart Avenue in Huntington village will soon house 26 apartments as part of a three-story mixed-development building expected to open in six weeks, according to Peter Pastorelli, managing partner.

Twenty-six apartments priced $2,200-$3,000 per month are set to come online this summer in Huntington village on the former Losquadro ice house property.

Peter Pastorelli, managing partner of the building, said Wednesday mixed-use development at 50 Stewart Ave. is expected to open in six weeks.

However, “I’m only in the 8th inning,” he said, adding that the final touches are still being put on the property, including landscaping.

Pastorelli, also the founder of Value Drugs, said the three-floor building will include retail space on the first floor, and a total of six one-bedroom and 20 two-bedroom apartments spread among the second and third floors. One-bedroom apartments start at $2,200 a month; the two-bedroom units start at $3,000, he said.

Pastorelli, who originally proposed the project in 2013, added that half of the residential units were “committed,” but the retail space was still up for grabs as of Wednesday.

The project was originally slated to be completed by the end of last year, but a tough winter impeded progress, Pastorelli said.

“Some of the coordination just slowed down because of weather,” he said. “I was still pretty pleased to have finished it in the time we did. There were a lot of moving parts.”

As for the name of the complex, Pastorelli has opted to keep it historic. It will be known as “50 Ice House Apartments,” a nod to both the building’s address and the property’s history.

It’s “one of the classic buildings in the town,” he said, explaining that the Losquadro Ice Group of Brooklyn made and distributed ice from the site for decades.

“That’s why we’ve tried to maintain much of the look,” he said, adding that he plans to decorate the interior of the first floor with photographs from the period when it still operated as an ice house.

He added, “It was a family business in Huntington for a couple generations and I wanted to honor that.”