Representatives For New Owner Of Historic Sagg Store And Post Office Present Initial Plans To Joint Meeting Of Sagaponack Village Boards

In what Mayor Donald Louchheim said was the first-ever joint meeting of the Sagaponack Village Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Architectural Review Board, representatives of the new owners of the Sagg General Store unveiled concept plans they had filed with the village last week for a major renovation of the post office and general store, the most iconic building in the village for 150 years.

“Significant and possibly unprecedented approvals,” said Louchheim, will be required from all three boards if the owner, who has insisted on anonymity in the public sphere since purchasing the property, wants to proceed with the plans that were presented to the boards at the special meeting on Friday, May 13, at Sagaponack Village Hall.

Louchheim said the meeting was being held “since all three boards will have to be closely involved in this, and we want to make sure everybody is working from the same set of facts.”

Members of the public were not permitted to participate in the Friday discussion, but Louchheim assured residents that they will have ample opportunity to participate and share their views and concerns when the boards have decided on recommendations and hold public hearings.

The large-scale renovation and addition to the store, which also has always been home to the Sagaponack Post Office, will be quite a journey, as what’s at stake is a building with preexisting nonconformities, and an application that includes non-conforming usage.

The Sagg General Store, at 542 Sagaponack Main Street, sold on August 6 for $3.75 million. In addition to housing the post office, it had most recently been run as the gourmet food market, Pierre’s. It was listed by Brown Harris Stevens agents Susan L. Ratcliffe and Christopher J. Burnside in the fall of 2020 with an original asking price of $3.99 million.

Scott Strough of Compass procured the deal as the selling broker.

The store has been a presence in the village for nearly 150 years. In its early days, it sold products suited to the farming community, and in later years became more of a basic market, with deli sandwiches, coffee, and other small grocery items. As Pierre’s, it sold more gourmet fare.

The store was built in 1878 and for much of the time since then has been owned by various members of the Hildreth and Thayer families, up to the present day sale. An addition that was put on the building’s north side in the early 1900s became what is now the post office.

The post office has a lease, paid by the federal government, through 2025, for $3,900 per month. The new owners would not be required to renew the lease after it is up, but according to village code it is required to be maintained as office use, and they have expressed commitment to maintaining the post office.

Friday’s presentation was largely a joint effort between Anthony Pasca of Esseks, Hefter, Angel, Di Talia and Pasca LLP, a Riverhead based law firm working for the applicant, as well as David Curry, the owner’s representative and overall project director.

The owner, referred to at one point as “she,” is apparently interested in staying anonymous in the public sphere, for reasons that were not outlined. But Curry said she has expressed willingness to meet privately with the board members. He described her as a “longtime” Sagaponack resident who saw the purchase of the store as “an opportunity to do something special for the community,” with respect for the store’s place as the heart of Sagaponack Village.

Greg Greenwald is the architect for the project, with Britton Bistrian serving as the planner and David Rose hired as the project engineer.

Right from the jump, Pasca spoke about the owner’s commitment to preserving the building’s historic use as both a general store and post office, saying that “the goal is to make sure it will be around for the next 150 years.”

Renderings shared at the meeting showed that the initial plans will maintain the look of the front of the building, while a large extension will be tacked on to the back. Pasca and Curry said work would be done to bring the building into ADA and fire code compliance, and they will need to install an eco-friendly sanitary system as well, which will require using a parcel of adjacent land still owned by the Hildreth family, which the representatives said the family had agreed to allow them to use. The Hildreth family name is on the application, Pasca pointed out, adding they have been working alongside them in the early planning stages.

The reps also stated the owner’s desire to renovate the attic and use it as a storage area for a collection of Hildreth family artifacts that have been stored in a barn on the property.

“The Hildreth family has been generous about helping to make this project work,” Pasca said. “It’s their family legacy, too. They’ve been gracious about working with us to come up with a plan that preserves their legacy.”

The back area of the store would include a covered porch and large floor-to-ceiling windows on one side of the building, with sliding barn doors to prevent any light pollution during later hours.

The initial plans also call for moving the entire building back 15 feet, to create a buffer between the sidewalk and front of the building, which they hope would include a front porch.

The plans would also include work to improve the basement, which would give the post office more space to operate, and allow for additional storage. There would be other improvements to the post office as well, including increasing the lobby size and potentially adding additional boxes — which would be good news to Sagaponack residents currently on a waiting list for a P.O. box.

When asked to offer estimates on a timeline for when the work would be finished and the store would reopen, the reps said they are hopeful they will be fully up and running by the summer of 2023 but acknowledged that a lot has to come together still. Curry said that while the number of variances the project will require will “seem like a lot,” the number of preexisting nonconformities that come along with the project outnumber that.

“Overall, the project will result in a reduction of nonconformities, not an increase,” he said.

Louchheim expressed his view that the owners were, thus far, doing the right things and he expressed gratitude that the new owner seems to be dedicated to historic preservation and maintaining the character of the building and respecting its place in the history of the village.

“We should all be thankful,” he said. “But it will be a regulatory jumble that we’ll all have to thread our way through.”