Former Plitt Ford Building Demolished To Make Way For Home Goods Store In Wainscott

The former Plitt Ford building on Montauk Highway in Wainscott was demolished last week to make way for a HomeGoods home furnishings store, which is expected to open for business in early 2015.

Architect Peter Cook of Water Mill plans to build a 15,000-square-foot shingled structure with a gray asphalt roof and white trim on the 2-acre property. Ninety-eight parking spaces are planned for behind the store, where cypress and maple trees also will be planted. A sidewalk will encircle the structure.

Mr. Cook presented his plans to the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee at its April 5 meeting, although East Hampton Town officials had already approved the project in late February.

“We’re good to go on everything except the actual stamp from the Building Department,” Mr. Cook said in a phone interview, adding that the project has received all necessary approvals. “It’s a fully conforming project,” he said. The area has a central business zoning designation.

The property, which sits at 368 Montauk Highway just west of La Capannina pizzeria, was purchased in 2010 for $3.8 million by Wainscott Retail LLC. of Garden City, whose partners include Mr. Cook and the late developer Gregg Saunders of Sagaponack. The group had been trying to redevelop the property ever since.

“It’s been a multi-year project getting this far,” Mr. Cook said.

Mr. Saunders was killed in an automobile crash on Montauk Highway in East Hampton in August 2012, just weeks after the opening of a Whole Foods gourmet market pop-up store on the site. His widow now represents his share of the company.

The original 7,500-square-foot building had been put to reuse several times since the closing of the car dealership in May 2009. In 2011, it was a temporary home to the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons thrift shop during the rescue organization’s renovation of its Sagaponack site. Mr. Saunders worked with local civic leaders to bring Whole Foods to the site in the summer of 2012 just before his death.

Expected to be a seasonal experiment, the Whole Foods market proved to be popular with the summer crowd, as well as many locals. However, it did not reopen the following year. The building most recently served as an outdoor patio furniture store last summer before being demolished this week.

Some civic leaders are now on board with the idea of a HomeGoods retail store, because they said it would have less of an impact than a food establishment or supermarket.

“We were pleased with the design and feel that the HomeGoods store would have less traffic and fewer truck deliveries, especially at off hours,” said Rick DelMastro, co-chair of the Wainscott CAC.

“It’s a wonderful thing for the community, because it represents a low use,” said Wainscott resident Richard Myers, who also sits on the East Hampton Town Architectural Review Board. “The more that we can tidy up … the better we’re looking,” he said, referring to recent beautification efforts in the tiny hamlet and construction along the Montauk Highway corridor. “I’m really pleased with what we have. I think we’re lucky to have HomeGoods. Lots of things are being done to clean up Wainscott.”

HomeGoods, a division of retailer TJX Companies Inc., sells everything from kitchen and bathroom supplies to furniture, bedding, décor and other home accents.