Douglas Elliman To Market Canoe Place Inn Townhouses

Douglas Elliman has been contracted to sell the Boathouse"—37 townhouses planned on the eastern side of the Shinnecock Canal in Hampton Bays.

The application for the townhouses, which would be built on approximately 4.5 acres along the eastern bank of the Shinnecock Canal, is still before the Southampton Town Planning Board. The targeted buyers are boaters and recreational fishermen—and others who enjoy being on the water.

"I think the typical person would have a boat," said Enzo Morabito of Douglas Elliman, whose team will be marketing the townhouses. "That's what I would do if I could afford it."

Mr. Morabito was in Miami Beach this week to look at homes like the townhouses expected to be built in Hampton Bays.

"What’s happening here in Miami Beach is what's happening here [in Hampton Bays]," Mr. Morabito said. "What's happening is 75 percent of what's being bought up here [Miami Beach] is by New Yorkers.

"The vast majority are older and they want luxury, they want convenience, they want to be somewhere where there is action like a village or city," he continued. "And they want the amenities that come with it."

Mr. Morabito said the same amenities that attract New Yorkers in Miami Beach will also be offered at the townhouses, which he expects to appeal as second or third homes to recreational fishermen and the like who go to Miami in the winter and return to New York for the summer.

Mr. Morabito said each unit will cost about $1,000 per square foot, although he noted that the price could change when the townhouses hit the market. At this rate, a 1,980-square-foot townhouse would cost $1.9 million.

"These are the highest prices in Hampton Bays," the broker said.

The average townhouse at the Boathouse—the name may change in the future—will be 1,980 square feet and most likely have three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, three bathrooms and an attic, according to a site plan by the developers R Squared Real Estate Partners of New York dated January 27, 2016.

The townhouses would be spread among seven buildings, and there would also be a clubhouse with a fitness center, kitchen, lounge area, pool equipment room and men's and women's bathrooms.

Town Planner Janice Scherer, who is assigned to the project, said in December that the application will be before the Planning Board for several months after the site plans are deemed complete.

The construction of the townhouses was approved by the Town Board in January 2014 as a planned development district, a zoning mechanism that balances intensified development with community benefits. The project has gone through various stages of progress, change and stagnation since the developers first proposed to replace the derelict inn with 75 time share units in 2006. The current iteration calls for the complete restoration of the inn on the western side of the canal, along with the construction of the 37 townhouses on the eastern side.

The Planning Board must now approve the plans, including a schedule to ensure that different phases of development are undertaken at the same time, and also dictating the order in which the project will be completed.

Stressing that nothing is set in stone, Mr. Morabito said he expects contractors to break ground on the project this summer so that the townhouses will be ready to hit the market sometime in 2017.

"I think it’s a high-end, wonderful project," Mr. Morabito said, adding as well, "They are going to enhance the community because they are paying taxes."

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