5 Photos
Acreage fronting Montauk Highway in Water Mill has been cleared for the construction of 38 town homes.
Acreage fronting Montauk Highway in Water Mill has been cleared for a long-aborning town homes project. Michael Heller
The owner of this Water Mill acreage has been trying to develop it since the 1980s. Michael Heller
An artist's rendering of the town homes.
An artist's rendering of the town homes.
Motorists driving through Water Mill may have noticed acreage on the corner of Montauk Highway and Nowedonah Avenue scraped clear of vegetation. The clearing seemed to happen overnight, but the plans to develop the property for luxury townhomes were part of a process property owner Phillip Young said took “many millions of dollars and a grueling 30 years.”
Mr. Young purchased the land back in 1986, for $960,000, according to town records. In 2020, Watermill Crossing LLC paid $9.2 million for the same parcels.
The first development iteration looked to create a supermarket at the site, which was zoned for retail. “But no matter what my planners put in there, the town didn’t want any retail there even though that was the zoning, ‘Mr. Young said.
Speaking to The Press in 2018, then-Planning Board Chairman Dennis Finnerty said a shopping center with a mix of retail and residential spaces was once proposed but was met with stiff opposition from area residents.
Since 1986, there were multiple attempts to put a 28,000-square-foot supermarket there, but those efforts all failed — especially after the Water Mill Shoppes were built next door in the 1990s, making the call for more retail in the area fall on deaf ears. Hamlet studies in 2001 and 2004 recommended residential and office space for the property.
Finally, about 10 years ago, the town agreed to allow a reasonable amount of multifamily houses there, Mr. Young explained.
In 2018 the Planning Board approved the application for 38 luxury townhouses of which four are classified as affordable, he recalled. Associated structures include a swimming pool, clubhouse and sewage treatment plant.
During discussion of the environmental review of the project in 2018, mention was made of potential traffic impacts. Traffic going in and out of the complex will use Nowedonah Avenue instead of Montauk Highway.
Watermill Crossing LLC is doing the developing, Mr. Young said. “I’m still involved as a shareholder,” he said, noting the limited liability company, with principals James Stanton and Jeff Suchman, just bought the last of three contiguous properties. In all, the development encompasses 6.45 acres. A condition of town approval was the provision of public water to two neighbors on Nowedonah Avenue.
At first, consideration was given to allowing the development through a Planned Development District zone change, but the idea was dropped, according to Deputy Town Attorney Kathleen Murray and the property, along with others nearby, were zoned Hamlet Office.
A description of the development from Saunders & Associates notes the development will feature “multiple sprawling acres of lawn areas and native trees.”
Quintessential Hamptons architecture will inspire the tranquil community, the marketing description articulates.
