All set for a tourist mecca?
Plan for downtown approved, but financial crisis throws a shadow
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Windows of the now empty storefront once occupied by Swezey's Department Store reflect the Suffolk Theatre building, which is still not restored.
The study, which the Town Board approved last Thursday, began in conjunction with Apollo Real Estate Advisors' proposed redevelopment of downtown Riverhead in 2006. It was intended to serve the function of an environmental impact study for Apollo or any other application that needed such a study.
Since then, Apollo's project has been scaled down, and the economy also has taken a turn for the worse, reducing the interest in development and leaving few active projects that will immediately benefit from the study.
"I think having this study approved makes downtown more attractive to those seeking speedy action on building projects," Supervisor Phil Cardinale said. "The problem now is that we are in economic turmoil, and we are less likely to see many people looking to develop."
Normally, applicants would have to commission and fund such a study on their own. Instead, the updated urban renewal plan could be applied to any application within its boundaries, although the town could still require additional information on specific projects. The cost of the plan update, nearly $800,000, was paid by Apollo, although other applicants who use the study would have to repay their share on a proportional basis determined by proposed square footage.
Mr. Cardinale said having the updated plan available could shorten the application review time for projects by "months."
To date, the only applications currently on file with the town are Atlantis Marine World's proposed hotel on property adjacent to its aquarium on East Main Street, and a proposed five-story building on East Avenue.
The East Avenue application is a resubmittal of a site plan that was approved three years ago and never built. The prior approval has since lapsed. Town planning director Rick Hanley said several other projects were approved and never built in the studied area, and that those approvals are close to expiring as well.
The two projects most likely to benefit from the approved study are Apollo's proposal for the former Woolworth building and Atlantis' proposed hotel. Apollo's most recent plan is said to include retail space on the ground floor, offices on the second floor, a hotel on the third and fourth floors and a catering hall and spa on the fifth floor.
Apollo originally proposed a multiplex movie theater at the Woolworth site but has yet to find a movie theater company interested in building on Main Street, according to Apollo principal Kevin Davis, who said the company is considering other uses. Apollo has yet to submit a site plan for the Woolworth site, something Mr. Davis said would likely come in the fourth quarter of this year.
Atlantis, meanwhile, has submitted a special permit application for the hotel it plans to build just east of its aquarium. "I got word that the study passed," said Atlantis principal Jim Bissett. "That's great news for us. We are moving along quite rapidly,"
The study specifically listed 10 projects. Of those, three had received approval prior to the study but were never built. They are a proposed five-story mixed use building on 209 East Avenue, another proposed five-story building, called the Zenith Building, on McDermott Avenue, and the Viva L'Arte Center, a two-story building with artists' lofts and space in between Barth's Drug Store and EastEnders Coffee House.
Martin Sendlewski, an architect who worked on all three of those projects, has said that many developers or would-be downtown tenants have said they want to see what happens with Apollo before moving forward with their projects.
The Atlantis hotel, a proposed five-story hotel on the site of the former Ben Franklin Craft store, the Suffolk Theatre restoration, Apollo, and two proposed five-story buildings by Riverhead Enterprises also are mentioned and have not been approved.
Mr. Hanley said Jeffrey Rimland, the owner of the Ben Franklin building, submitted a site plan application for a hotel on that property several months ago, but was told by the town that the application was deficient and that more information was needed. Mr. Hanley said no additional information has been submitted to date.
The owners of the Suffolk Theatre are in the middle of a legal battle with the town, which says the theater's owners failed to meet the deadline to restore and reopen the building.
The town, which sold the theater in 2005 with a condition that it be reopened this year, is now seeking to have the property revert to town ownership. Theater owner Bob Castaldi has said he will not do any more work on the restoration until the court rules on the reverter issue.
Riverhead Enterprises, which owns numerous downtown properties, including some sought by Apollo, had submitted site plan applications in 2005 that called for three-story residential complexes on the sites of the former Woolworth and Sears buildings and in buildings across the street from the Woolworth site.
The company eventually sold the Woolworth building to Apollo in 2006, but the other two applications were never processed by the town once the comprehensive study began.
Sheldon Gordon, a principal in Riverhead Enterprises, said he is uncertain what his company will do with the site plan applications, and that he never got much feedback from the town. In addition, he said he has not heard from Apollo in a while, either. The company had sought to purchase several of Riverhead Enterprises' properties on the south side of Main Street, including the two on which the site plans were filed, but those negotiations broke down last year.
"We continue to be optimistic about downtown, but these are difficult times in terms of getting financing for projects," Mr. Gordon said.
Mr. Cardinale said that with the study complete, the town plans to meet with Apollo later this month to find out if the company still plans on building on the south side of Main Street, as originally proposed. He said the town also will give Apollo a 30-day notice that it seeks to end a "master developer" agreement with the company. That agreement was what led to Apollo's paying the study's costs upfront, but it also would have given the company preference if it sought to buy town-owned land, which it originally proposed to do, or it sought to have the town acquire land by condemnation and then resell it to Apollo.
Mr. Cardinale said that if Apollo is no longer seeking to buy town land in the riverfront parking lot, or request condemnation, the company would have little use for the master developer designation.
tgannon@timesreview.com
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