‘Mr. Deer Park’ Honored With Frank Cassata Way Street Dedication

DEER PARK, NY — Frank Cassata spent decades putting his mark on Deer Park. Now, his name has a permanent place on one of the community's main roads.

Family members, local officials and community members gathered Wednesday for the dedication of Frank Cassata Way, an honorary street designation at Deer Park Avenue and Claremont Street honoring the late businessman and developer known as "Mr. Deer Park."

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The new sign bears Cassata's name and the "Mr. Deer Park" nickname that followed him for decades. His son, Rosario "Russ" Cassata, stood near Deer Hills Plaza, a shopping center his father developed.

"This was his shopping center," Cassata said. "This was one of his pride and joys that he built."

Rosario said his father likely would have appreciated the honor — while immediately looking for the business angle.

"He'd probably be saying, 'I love the sign with my name on it, but how do I make any money off this sign?'" he said.

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Cassata died July 12, 2023. He was 89.

Long before his name was placed beneath a Deer Park Avenue street sign, Cassata was selling zeppoles, running a deli, building shopping centers and showing up at construction sites in a Rolls-Royce with a wheelbarrow hanging out of the trunk.

Cassata grew up in Italy, where family accounts say he sold olive oil and citrus from a cart as a teenager. He immigrated to New York in 1954 at age 21.

In his early years on Long Island, he sold paper bags to local merchants and made zeppoles with his mother to sell at an open market in Brentwood.

He saved his money, eventually bought a building and opened a deli — the start of a career that would expand into residential and commercial development across Long Island and later Florida.

Suffolk County Legislator Tom Donnelly, who grew up in Deer Park, recalled Cassata as the original owner of Frank's Delicatessen and described the business as a center of community life.

The deli and Cassata's businesses supported activities including Little League, CYO sports and local dinners, Donnelly said.

"He was in the middle of it all," Donnelly said.

Donnelly said Cassata left a "lasting, lasting impact" on Deer Park, even as his work eventually extended far beyond the community.

Cassata's family said he developed shopping centers, industrial buildings and residential properties throughout the Town of Babylon. He also became known for developing senior rental housing on Long Island.

"Frank Cassata meant a lot of things to a lot of people," Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer said Wednesday.

Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer said Cassata's impact went well beyond any single development and his work remains scattered throughout the town and other parts of Suffolk County.

But one of the most enduring stories about Cassata had less to do with what he built than how he arrived to build it.

Schaffer recalled Cassata driving around Deer Park in a Rolls-Royce with a wheelbarrow hanging out of the trunk.

The unusual combination became symbolic of Cassata — a successful developer who still showed up ready to work.

Schaffer offered another glimpse of Cassata's personality Wednesday, recalling a Leukemia Society fundraiser during his first stint as town supervisor in the 1990s.

Guests were raising money through challenges when Cassata, then around 60, got up in formalwear and performed a series of cartwheels across the floor. Schaffer said the story reflected a man who maintained that energy and larger-than-life personality well into his later years.

"Not just one; he did several across the floor," Schaffer recalled.

Cassata's success also became a vehicle for charitable giving.

His family said he supported numerous causes, particularly organizations serving children and people in need

The tradition continues through Rosario, who is the founder and trustee of the Cassata Foundation, a privately funded nonprofit family foundation established in 2017. The organization says it supports local and national charities, educational institutions and families and individuals in need.

Rosario said that spirit of giving continues to shape how he approaches his own role in the community.

He described a philosophy he calls "Be a Batman," inspired by the superhero he grew up watching on television.

"He was a superhero that didn't have superpowers," Rosario said. "You don't need superpowers. Just do something good for your community."

Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter, a longtime friend of the Cassata family, described Frank Cassata's journey Wednesday as an example of the American dream.

"When people pass by and see that sign, there are going to be many that aren't going to know who he is, and hopefully will look it up or ask, and it'll keep his memory and everything that he's done alive for generations," Carpenter said.

Schaffer said the Town of Babylon's historian website includes information about people recognized through honorary street dedications so residents can learn the stories behind the names.

Rosario said his father's lessons were learned less through speeches than through hard work.

"My dad worked me pretty hard," he said. "I worked on the job sites, worked in the dirt, came home exhausted, came home filthy, and somehow on every Friday when it was payday, I would wind up doing something dumb on the job site and being fired."

He would spend the weekend begging his father for his job back, only to repeat the cycle.

"I never got paid," Rosario joked.

Rosario said the lesson is one he now tries to pass along to his grandchildren.

"I learned that if you work hard, if you put a lot of effort in, take some risks, you can succeed," Rosario said. "And that's what Frank did, and I'd like to follow in his footsteps."