Restaurant, apartments eyed for big corner building
Office/apartments on top floors
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Dee Muma of Riverhead, new owner of 1 East Main St., hopes to convert the property into a combination of restaurant, apartments and office space as a part of a 'Riverhead renaissance.'
Local caterer and bison farmer Dee Muma and her husband, realtor and restaurateur Ed Tuccio, have purchased the building at 1 E. Main St., at the southeast corner of East Main and Peconic Avenue, the News-Review has learned
Ms. Muma said she is planning to open a restaurant in the ground floor and create four duplex apartments on the second and third floors. The duplexes will be a blend of living and office space, so the same person could live and work in the building.
"This is just a part of a whole Riverhead renaissance, of creating a district where people live, work and play," Ms. Muma said. "That's how towns are revitalized and this will have elements of all of it."
The second floor will also boast a communal conference room, and Ms. Muma said she anticipates installing an elevator in the building.
Ms. Muma and Mr. Tuccio own the neighboring Tweeds restaurant.
Of the connection between Tweeds and Mr. Dickhoff's apartment complex, called Summerwind, Ms. Muma said: "We're all cooperating in helping Riverhead round the corner. We've seen other towns that were in tough shape turn around. You have to create an interesting district, something unique, something that's not going up in strip malls or big centers.
"We want something that's unique to itself and that brings out what's best about the area," she said.
Ms. Muma offered no exact time frame for the project's completion. She's hired Mr. Dickhoff to oversee construction at the site.
The 1 E. Main St. building, which most recently housed real estate offices, was at one time considered an eyesore. It had been boarded up and declared unsafe before prior owner John Rothe purchased and renovated it about six years ago.
Another former owner, Joe Orlino, had famously painted the building pink in 1994, but repainted it about a month later after hearing complaints.
tgannon@timesreview.com
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