Jun 27, 2018 11:19 AM

Developers planning to build 37 townhouses on the eastern side of the Shinnecock Canal in Hampton Bays as part of the Canoe Place Inn restoration project broke ground on Tuesday morning.

Standing near the old Canoe Place Inn building, developers Mitchell and Gregg Rechler said the townhouses will be built, and the old inn will be restored, by 2020—if all goes according to plan.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Gregg Rechler.

Gregg Rechler explained that he and his cousin, who own Rechler Equity Partners LLC, started acquiring the property in 2005, marking the beginning of their journey to develop a swath of land along the Shinnecock Canal in Hampton Bays.

The developers plan to build 37 townhouses on the eastern side of the canal and restore the old Canoe Place Inn, a former nightclub complex, on the western side, creating a new 25-room inn. Additionally, the developer plans to build a 1,900-square-foot clubhouse and a 300-seat catering hall on the 5.6-acre property on the west side of the canal.

But the quest came with some roadblocks along the way.

Gregg Rechler said the first iteration of the project called for the demolition of the Canoe Place Inn and plans to build a 70-unit hospitality project. The proposal didn’t get very far, as the Hampton Bays community “fiercely” opposed the Canoe Place Inn building being torn down, the developer said.

The Rechlers went back to the drawing board after that and later—after meeting with community and town officials—came up with a new idea for the property, which was ultimately approved by the Town Board in January 2015.

To build the project, the developers requested a special change of zone through a now-defunct zoning law called a planned development district, or PDD. The Canoe Place Inn PDD was set to expire on January 21, three years after its adoption, but the Town Board granted the Rechlers a two-year extension earlier this year, noting that the developers have “acted in good faith,” even though significant work had not yet started on either property.

Some demolition and clearing work was completed ahead of the extension, but a May 2015 lawsuit filed by a group of homeowners called the “Shinnecock Neighbors,” who opposed the project, hindered the developers from securing the necessary Suffolk County Health Department and town building permits to move forward with any construction. Most of the complaints filed by the plaintiffs ultimately were dismissed by the courts.

After more than a decade of waiting, Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman applauded the Rechlers on Tuesday for finally breaking ground on the project.

“We all know that this is something that the community has wanted for a long time,” he said. “They have been waiting, watching this building in disrepair, and thinking about the memories—and there are a lot of memories at the Canoe Place Inn, that’s for certain. And just hoping that someone would come along and turn this around.

“We found an amazing partner in Rechler Equity, in Gregg and Mitchell Rechler,” he added.