The Town Board last week voted to terminate the master developer agreement it signed with the Apollo group in August 2006, when Apollo was seeking to buy town-owned land for a $500 million riverfront development project.

The deal gave Apollo the exclusive right to negotiate with the town for that land, with Apollo promising to pay for a comprehensive East Main Street environmental study.

The company later abandoned plans for the town land due to flooding issues, and instead tried to buy private property on the south side of East Main Street, to no avail.

Apollo attorneys Don Secunda and Mitch Pally said the agreement is no longer needed because they are not seeking to buy land from the town. Apollo did pay about $800,000 for the study, which future developers can use instead of conducting their own lengthy studies.

"At the time we entered into the agreement, the real estate industry was much healthier, so the benefit was no other developer could come in and make a deal with the town while we were doing our plan ...," Mr. Pally said. "It didn't preclude anybody else from developing anything they wanted to develop. I think there was a misconception about that."

"The advantage we had was that the town couldn't sell any of its property to someone else without asking us first," Mr. Secunda said. "That's why we agreed to pay for the entire East Main Street Urban Development Area environmental impact statement. Because we were planning the entire development."

Councilman Jim Wooten proposed the resolution to terminate the agreement at last Wednesday's Town Board meeting.

"I've been saying it for six months," he said afterwards. "There was no point to it anymore. I've met with four different developers, and nobody's got the money to throw into downtown."

The Apollo group did buy one property, the former Woolworth building, and is said to be in discussions with Katter Development Company about building apartments or condominiums there. A proposal to build a hotel on that site appears to have fallen through.

During the recent town campaigns, Republican Sean Walter, who was elected supervisor, frequently stated that he felt the presence of Apollo was a death knell for downtown, because nobody wanted to lease space there knowing Apollo might later acquire that property.

tgannon@timesreview.com

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APOLLO BYE BYE : 11/12/2009
For my money this is no loss. I've done internet research on the Apollo Group. (Try it yourself - Google- Bing). They seem to do nothing more than create equity partnerships with communities...then head out of town with t he profits. Example...the Suffolk Theatre should have been a great profit generator for Riverhead for years. I've never understood why the Apollo/Riverhead partnership had muddled along for all these years without producing any thing. Main Street is too great an asset for Riverhead to let it drift away. Mike Botula, RHS Class of 58

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