Condos in exchange for Canoe Place Inn restoration plan receives mixed reviews

HAMPTON BAYS—Residents grilled Southampton Town officials over the last two weeks about a pending deal that would allow developers to build dozens of luxury condominiums along the east side of Shinnecock Canal in exchange for preserving the venerable Canoe Place Inn building—a proposal that raised concerns but few outright rejections from hamlet residents.

About two dozen people gathered at the Hampton Bays Public Library on Ponquogue Avenue for a Hampton Bays Citizens Advisory Committee meeting last Wednesday, July 7, where Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst and Planning and Development Administrator Jefferson Murphree unveiled early sketches of the proposed condos and outlined the tentative deal. They said the owners of the Canoe Place Inn property, cousins Gregg and Mitchell Rechler, will revise their bid to raze the 88-year-old Canoe Place Inn building if Southampton Town considers a separate application from them to construct 43 condominiums almost directly across the Shinnecock Canal, at the site of Tide Runners restaurant.

The Rechlers, who head the firm R Squared LLC in Melville, own both sites. They requested a zoning change within the last few years that would allow them to knock down the Canoe Place Inn building, where the nightclub Coliseum now operates, and put up a $100 million resort complex in its place. That proposal drew flak from some Hampton Bays residents who said the structure is rich in history even though it lacks landmark status.

Ms. Throne-Holst told residents that the pending counter-proposal from the Rechlers came after a long negotiation process that she called a “labor of love” on her part. The Rechlers declined to comment on the matter, citing ongoing litigation—their company filed a notice of claim against the town in September 2009 over a building moratorium in Hampton Bays that began in 2008 and expired this March.

The developers would need a zoning change, most likely in the form of a planned development district, or PDD, in order to build 43 condominiums, each 2,400 square feet, on the 4.5-acre North Road property where Tide Runners and 1 North Steakhouse now stand, officials said.

If approved by the Town Board, a PDD will allow the builders to skirt zoning rules in exchange for public benefits. As part of the PDD, the public would have access to a boardwalk along the canal, Ms. Throne-Holst said. That walkway and the preservation of the Canoe Place Inn are the only public benefits that had been discussed up to this point, she said.

The Rechlers would also seek to construct a wastewater treatment system on a wooded 2.6-acre lot, which they also own, across North Road from the proposed condos. Most of the trees on the parcel would remain undisturbed, officials said.

The luxury condos could sell for almost $1 million each, according to Jim Morgo, a former Suffolk County deputy chief executive who represented the Rechlers at last week’s meeting. The deal would make it financially worthwhile for the Rechlers to keep the existing Canoe Place Inn building and renovate it into a banquet hall and restaurant for weddings and other gatherings—a use that would be less lucrative than the original resort proposal, officials said. As per the plan, the exterior of the building would be restored and preserved.

The site of the proposed condos is currently zoned “resort waterfront business,” according to Mr. Murphree, meaning that the Rechlers are allowed to build marinas, motels and restaurants totaling up to 68,208 square feet of gross floor area. The wooded lot across North Road, where the wastewater treatment system would go, has the same zoning and allows for 48,000 square feet of development.

At 2,400 square feet per condo, the Rechlers will get a total of 103,200 square feet of gross floor area at the easternmost site—if the deal goes through. Condos also do not fall within the as-of-right uses for the property, meaning the Town Board will need to pave the way with a PDD.

Mr. Morgo told residents that Ms. Throne-Holst brought the Rechlers “kicking and screaming” to the negotiating table.

“The Rechlers, I tell you, don’t have an appetite to create something that looks just like the Canoe Place Inn on the outside,” he said. “They didn’t want it.”

The proposal drew a slew of questions from residents at the meeting, and reactions ranging from lukewarm to chilly as community members were forced to weigh the historical value of the building with the prospect of added density in their hamlet—already the most populous one in Southampton Town.

Ms. Throne-Holst insisted at the start of last week’s meeting that she was not out to “sell” the deal or even express an opinion, but simply to get a sense of where the community stood. She said community input will guide the rest of the process.

The supervisor did, however, stress that the deal would satisfy a need for a large event hall on the South Fork, and said that she usually has to travel to the North Fork for fire department dinners and other events.

Richard Casabianca, a lifelong Hampton Bays resident who once headed the hamlet’s historical society, called the Canoe Place Inn “Southampton Town’s number-one heritage aspect,” and said this week that negotiations to preserve it were “tending in the right direction.”

Mr. Casabianca, who also sits on the Southampton Town Historic Districts and Landmarks Board, added that one way to stem concerns over added development would be for the Town Board to require some transfer of development rights as part of the PDD agreement. He said that two central concerns in Hampton Bays—curbing density and highlighting heritage—are converging in a “perfect storm” around the Canoe Place Inn deal.

“They’re both coming to a head in this one development, which is why it’s been so, well, interesting,” he said.

Other residents voiced support for the deal at the meeting.

“I think it’s a very good compromise,” said Ed Walters, a member of the Hampton Bays CAC. “The building is in terrible shape.”

But Mary Jean Green, the president of the Hampton Bays Civic Association, spoke out against the development on the eastern side of the canal, citing concerns over population growth, added traffic and the environmental impact of a proposed swimming pool that would sit along the edge of the waterway in preliminary designs.

While Ms. Green said she supports the plan to preserve the Canoe Place Inn, she questioned why Southampton Town is negotiating with the Rechlers when it could simply deny their PDD application to build the resort complex at the site of the Canoe Place Inn.

“I want to know why the town will negotiate when they can just say ‘no,’” Ms. Green said.

“Because then no one will preserve the Canoe Place Inn,” Ms. Throne-Holst replied.

The 6-acre inn property is also zoned “resort waterfront business,” and the town allows up to 35,000 square feet of gross floor space there as-of-right, Mr. Murphree said.

Historians say the Canoe Place Inn was built in the latter part of the 18th century, and housed guests as varied as Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his New York State governorship and the punk rock band The Ramones during the 1980s. It burned down in 1921 and was rebuilt in 1922 by the architect William L. Bottomley. For the last three decades or so, the sprawling structure has housed a series of nightclubs, according to Mr. Casabianca.

The Rechlers bought it in 2004—the same year they bought the properties on the eastern side of the canal, Mr. Morgo said.

Members of the Hampton Bays Historical & Preservation Society recounted the history of the inn—from its roots around the time of the Revolutionary War—at its meeting on Tuesday, where Ms. Throne-Holst and her assistant, Jennifer Garvey, again presented the pending deal with the Rechlers.

The sentiment at that meeting matched that of the earlier CAC meeting. Several residents said condos would be a worthwhile trade for the restoration of the Canoe Place Inn—although some asked Ms. Throne-Holst to try to negotiate down the number of proposed units.

Both Mr. Morgo and Ms. Throne-Holst stressed that the condo plan was still up for negotiation.

“This is not a done deal by any means,” Mr. Morgo said. “[The Rechlers] are not giving up their lawsuit. They are just putting it aside for a while to see how these negotiations go.”

Ms. Throne-Holst said that she would like to see the condos drawn up to have a more historical look in future renderings.

Mr. Casabianca said that he thinks a compromise is “almost there.” He said the transformation of the Canoe Place Inn, if the deal goes through, will have a “metaphysical” dimension: it will symbolize the end of a period in which Hampton Bays has been used as a playground for club patrons. It would mean that “that party era is over,” he said.

“I personally am looking forward to the grand reopening,” Mr. Casabianca said of the Canoe Place Inn. “I think it’s going to be the social event of the century. And I’m wondering what’s on the menu.”