The developers who own the Canoe Place Inn property in Hampton Bays picked up the applications last Thursday, September 30, needed to demolish the 88-year-old structure, two days after Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst called for a moratorium on the zoning tool that would most likely be needed to preserve the structure.
Gregg Rechler, a partner of R Squared LLC in Melville, the group that owns the inn property, said Friday he believes that Ms. Throne-Holst has lost interest in preserving the structure after she announced during last week’s Town Board meeting that she is considering a moratorium on planned development districts, or PDDs. PDDs are a zoning tool the Rechlers had hoped to utilize as part of a deal that would have allowed them to build 40 condominiums on the east side of the Shinnecock Canal in exchange for preserving the exterior of the Canoe Place Inn and reopening it as a catering facility.
“Unfortunately, my feeling is that Anna no longer has interest,” Mr. Rechler said, referring to negotiations that have been ongoing between the town and his company since the spring. “It’s because of her letter to the editor and what she said at the Town Board meeting—all these actions are contrary to moving forward.”
Ms. Throne-Holst, who has personally spoken with Hampton Bays civic groups about the proposed deal that would preserve the exterior of the Canoe Place Inn, did not return multiple calls and e-mails this week.
Mr. Rechler said Friday that he is keeping all of his options open, pointing out that he can legally demolish the structure as it is not a protected historic landmark.
“We’re going to go ahead and pull the [demolition] permits out,” he said. “[We’ll] do what we need to do as of right, within the next week the board should give us an indication of whether they want to move forward [with the condo plan] or they don’t.”
The Rechlers have not yet submitted the demolition application, according to town officials. Mr. Rechler said he will not make a decision on whether or not to submit it until after Town Board members discuss their plans for the proposed PDD moratorium during their next work session scheduled for today, Thursday, October 7.
As of earlier this week, there was a clear divide among board members regarding Ms. Throne-Holst’s suggestion.
“I don’t think we should be shutting down PDDs,” said Town Councilman Jim Malone, who lives in Hampton Bays and said he is the Town Board’s liaison to his hometown. “It’s a knee-jerk reaction. We already have the authority to deny these applications.”
Mr. Malone said he thinks the supervisor’s statement is an example of elected officials acting as “starting pistols,” adding that he believes the Rechlers picked up their demolition application in order to protect their interests. “My response to the Rechlers would be, ‘Not so fast,’” Mr. Malone said, regarding the moratorium on PDDs. “It is not the consensus of the board. One individual, albeit the supervisor, said that.”
If they decide to move forward and raze the Canoe Place Inn, the Rechlers could not immediately demolish it, according to Michael Benincasa, the town’s chief building inspector. He said the review process, which would be conducted by the town’s Historical Preservation Board, would take about five weeks because the building is more than 75 years old.
Once they receive a demo permit application, town officials make copies of it and forward them to members of the preservation board, which includes community leaders from across the municipality. They then have 30 days to review the application. Though they lack the authority to deny an application, preservation board members can make suggestions to the town’s building department which, in turn, shares that feedback with the applicants.
As part of their latest proposal, the Rechlers would preserve the outside of the Canoe Place Inn and provide a public walkway along the east side of the Shinnecock Canal. In exchange, the town would have had to approve a PDD and allow the developers to build the luxury condominiums where the Tide Runners and 1 North Steakhouse restaurants now stand.
Brenda Berntson, the president of the Hampton Bays Historical Society, said this week it would be a shame if the inn is lost forever. She said she supported the condominium plan because, at the end of the day, the inn would be preserved.
“This is one of the few times when the community has gone to the Town Board and asked for something and worked with the developer to come up with a plan,” Ms. Berntson said. “It actually worked and the developer actually listened to us.”
If the inn cannot be saved, Ms. Berntson said she would ask the Rechlers to preserve the five cottages also located on the property. She said she thinks those cottages are older than the inn itself.
No Mortons! Are you crazy?
I want an OTB, a Check Cashing Store... AND a Hooters.
Oh, I almost forgot the Chinese take out and chiropractic office :(
(sorry)
The Rechlers bought the property. The Rechlers own the property. The Rechlers can and will build on their property. Done properly the PDD helps control what is being built.
Surely people understand that there is going to be construction on both sides of the canal, with our without the pdd.
Wake up people - the land owner has rights!
I have heard all sorts of wonderful plans for what could be done on the east side of the canal. Buy it with CPF funds and make a park; switch it for another (less valuable) piece of land somewhere else in town; take it by eminent domain; allow the Rechlers to building housing in WH by their project there. All great ideas but it doesn't seem that any are grounded in reality.
The property owner has rights and they are legally allowed to build on the properties, ...more with or without a PDD.
Maybe the place simply is not salvageable, HOWEVER, the last thing we need is more unaffordable housing, and more examples of avarice, and another contributing factor which would damage the local environment.
They want an ROI, on an expensive investment. They want to play the Wall St. game, where more inventive ways are created to "hedge" bets, and not lose.
GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There will be construction...if you want the sewage treatment plant you need the PDD. Otherwise, that is gone.
Lots o' questions...
With an as of right construction, there is no wate treatment facility; with the PDD there is.
Whatever laws there are in place will be applied to either construction. Are "rugs" for lawns the law? Where does the runoff go now?
Our answer to everything can't be "look it needs work, screw it, let's just demolish it and start over." If you're going to do that, then you can't use how historic and serene the hamptons are in your marketing brochures.
I see you like to read about "crimes against liberty", but remember that freedom or liberty, like any other good thing, can quite easily be abused. Where has that $200 trillion dollars of thin air, evaporative captial gone from the last ten years, anyway? OH. wait, that's right, I forgot the whole pile of money, may as well have been the square root, of negative one...
If you feel strongly the Inn needs to be preserved, you should contact Anna office and let her know that.
It is sad that we have to play ...more lets make a deal but unfortunately that is what is happening.
Problem is, this ain't my grandfather's Post WWII world, or economy. And my dollar was worth alot less than his. The inflation index has been calculated since 1920, "when a dollar, was worth a dollar". In the early seventies, ...more a dollar was calculated at $0.25 by comparison to 1920. My dollar, is worth about a nickel, or less by comparison to that dollar, and my father's.
It's not self pity, it's being royally PI$$ED OFF that a few greedy, pompous, horses's a$$es (bleeped) up my hometown, and the country for our generation. Retirements gone, investments tanked, homes lost, the "American Dream" shattered for millions.
The shame of it all, is that in almost ten thousand years of "civilization", people haven't changed, only the proscenium has.
There are ALOT of good, decent, hard working people who just can't make it, thanks to a greedy, power hungry minority. So, before you break into the "greatest country on Earth" song and dance, spare me, and take a much harder look at your world, while wearing someone else's boots...
Let's stop trying to idiot proof the town.
Yes it is an eyesore, let's not be shortsighted, they are willing to put up the money to fix the eyesore. What is wrong with that?
How do you legally tell a property owner we've decided they can't build on it?
I hope you have let the Town know, as Anna as requested, that you feel the destruction of the Inn would be a loss to our town.
Sorry, if they build as of right your input goes out the window.
PDDs are a tool. If the tool is misused, there is a problem. Instead of throwing it all away, why not advocate for the Town to work harder at benefiting us.
Go back to to journalism school, you missed journalism 101.
I'm tired of the Town retroactively removing property rights, and I'm just a little guy struggling to make my mortgage payment. Hold that thought.. I have to go change the lightbulbs in my outdoor fixtures!
this is just an empty gesture by the rechlers.
Leave the waterfront for the community to enjoy and ...more build your condos somewhere else. The best use of the CPI property is for a restaurant for all to enjoy and maybe then you can put some condos behind it.
Of course a few years back there was a thought on having a warf on the canal with shops, similar to Gosman's. That was an unpopular idea with some. Now it seems that it should have been considered.
I'm not fully aware of the projects, but someone mentioned that with the PDD access to the waterfront would be preserved to the public at ...more the Canal. To some preserving the CPI facade/building is important. I'm indifferent to the CPI issue but I encourage the town to preserve open access to the waterfront by reasonable concessions if necessary.
For the Tuckahoe project, anything that replaces what is there now would be an improvement. I especially favor a supermarket alternative that avoids going into the village and brings alternative shopping choices. I like what this developer did in Hampton Bays. I think it gave that village a good face lift. I don't know that handful of affordable housing units there are going to make that much of a dent to the housing problem in this part of the town. Maybe they could be built somewhere else, a location swap, so that the developer can continue with the commercial aspect of the project. Also maybe rather than building many smaller stores, larger surfaces could be planned that could attract larger retailers to the area: Bed Bath and Beyond, Borders, Best Buy, Sports Authority.
I think that all the vacancies along the highway that people complain about suffer from the recession and the fact that they are on the highway itself and maybe because the locations are older and unattractive. As for the vacancies in the village, high rents have always been a issue. I've seen too many businesses there fall under the weight of start up costs, short season, and crushing rents. The recession of course has hurt too.
oops I'm off topic?
For myself there are only a handfull of stores in the village that make sense for me to frequent. I would rather go to Kmart and buy 3 bathing suits for $21.00 than $200.00 for one in the village. The stores I envision i believe would not displace the ones in the village although some might feel their margins pinched a bit. ...more What they would do is allow me to avoid going to Riverhead, rt. 58, for certain items and give me shopping alternatives locally.
As we know the cost of living out here is high for certain items and as
consumers we should be offered more competitive pricing and opportunities. We should not have to pay more in order to protect someone's business or real estate investment that don't necessarily cater, or care to cater, to our needs.
I believe that on balance the rt. 58 development has more than likely been a boon to the Town Riverhead and ,yes, probably hurt the downtown. But the mass of the rt. 58 business have been a success not because of the local buyer but because of their attraction to consumers up and down the island.
Not a development model that I would advocate for the SHV area, but I think there is room for better options here.
Those such as clam pie's comments ---you are cluless to what I just noted.
Personally to the people that complain about the building - I laugh - If the people ON THE HILL looked before they purchased property ...more they would have realized that there was a nightclub next door or down the block and guess what i bet they paid less for their property, so live with it.
This town used to provide alot of jobs for young persons The CPI alone provided 130 part-time jobs and 7 full time jobs for over 20 years. Did you know that one of the full time persons wound up moving to HB because he loved the town so much, wound up joining the Hampton Bays Ambulance and became a Chief there. Many of the security personel became police officers locally and throughout the tri-state area. I think it would be ashame to lose these jobs in the area.
I recently looked for a catering hall in southampton town to hold 130-150 people guess what i came up with nothing. I say let them restore the CPI into a catering hall and hotel, let them put an addition on the back with more hotel rooms and a indoor pool. I say the canal property should be turned into a restaurant row with a canal walkway and a maritime museum. Lets make Hampton bays a place where people want to come for a vacation again and not just a place to pick up undocumented workers to work on the mansions. I say put up 4 restaurants with affordable rental apartments above the restaurants, the museum and maybe a carosel or ferris wheel, maybe a small high end ice cream shop. Let us revitalize Hampton Bays before it turns into the next Brentwood, CI, Amityville.
While on the subject we have the decent looking kimg kullen plaza but what about the properties from Katrina strip mall, mulvey, and such lets get these properties cleaned up. Let us all be proactive - building is gonna happen lets make it for the good of all!!!!
The sooner everyone figures that out, the better...