Employees of the Peconic Land Trust have been working in rented space next door to their own headquarters on Hampton Road in Southampton Village for nearly two decades—but that scenario is about to change.
An approximately $2 million expansion project, funded primarily through private contributions, is expected to be finished by the summer of 2017, with the full staff of employees moving into the newly renovated building by Labor Day.
The organization outgrew its own 2,400-square-foot building at 296 Hampton Road just three years after purchasing the space in 1995, and then started leasing space in the basement of the Cook Maran & Associates building next door at 300 Hampton Road. Since then, the Peconic Land Trust has had to increase the amount of space leased next door at least three times to accommodate a staff that has now grown to 20, according to Pam Greene, the organization’s vice president. Before the renovations started, 13 staff members were in the basement of the Cook Maran building, while seven employees were able to work in the Peconic Land Trust building.
The organization decided to renovate, at least in part, because of the potential sale of 300 Hampton Road, which was recently being looked at by the Southampton School District for a potential purchase to use for administrative offices.
Now that renovations are under way, all 20 staff members are working in the Cook Maran building at 300 Hampton Road.
“It’s been a while,” Ms. Greene said recently. “We’re looking forward to being able to move into our own building.”
The process of renovating the office building began in 2013, when Peconic Land Trust officials hired the Southampton-based architect John David Rose, who drew up plans to tack on an additional 2,500 square feet, more than doubling the space and which does not include an added basement that will be used for storage.
Construction did not begin until this past August.
In order to add the basement, construction crews jacked the house up and off its foundation in September and moved it back while additional space was dug. When that portion of the project was finished, the crews moved the house on top of the basement, and built out the rear of the house.
“It’s been exciting,” Ms. Greene said. “Temporary is going to come to an end, and we’ll all be in our permanent home.”
on Jan 2, 2017