Sag Harbor's Baron's Cove Inn Being Readied To Reopen Next Spring

After more than a year of renovations, Baron’s Cove Inn on Water Street in Sag Harbor is expected to reopen next spring.

The former motel-slash-bar-slash-restaurant is slowly being transformed into an inn, complete with 67 guest rooms, a pool deck, and a new building to house a lobby, restaurant and living area. Construction began on the renovations more than a year ago, but the road to get there was not so straight for the owners of the property, KBR Sag Harbor, and the project’s developer, Cape Advisors, which is also heading the development of the Watchcase luxury condominiums and townhouses in the village.

In 2012, just before the project received approval from the Sag Harbor Village Planning Board, residents who lived near the 3-acre property expressed fears that the resort would take on a nightclub-like atmosphere similar to Rocco’s, a former nightspot on an adjacent lot where loud, pulsating music once carried on well into the late hours of the night.

In response, Cape Advisors volunteered to take mitigation measures to prevent the resort from coming to that point. The developer said it would put a midnight stopping point on serving alcohol at the restaurant, end outdoor seating and food and drink service at 10 p.m., and close the pool at 9 p.m.

Curtis Bashaw, co-founder and co-managing partner for Cape Advisors and Cape Resorts, a division of the agency, said that the renovated Baron’s Cove Inn will ultimately be a fun, quiet, relaxing place for people stay while they explore and enjoy Sag Harbor.

“The vision is really to have it be a resort in the village, taking advantage of those wonderful water views, and its location of being only five minutes away from Main Street,” Mr. Bashaw said. “We were very drawn to Baron’s Cove because it was a little bit larger. It was not on a highway, instead in a village, and it was on the water.”

The new Baron’s Cove will consist of three buildings: the original Bay and Meadow buildings, where the guest rooms will be, and the new lobby house. While Mr. Bashaw said Bay and Meadow will be similar to each other aesthetically, the 12,000-square-foot Bay building is located poolside and holds the 25 larger rooms. Each room on the first floor has its own garden, and the top floor rooms have porches and lofts. In Meadow, an 18,000-square-foot building with the 42 smaller rooms, the first-floor rooms have private gardens as well, and the ones on the second floor are outfitted with balconies.

As for the new 5,500-square-foot building for the lobby and restaurant, Mr. Bashaw said it will be much more than a part of the resort that guests just breeze through. Seating areas and three wood-burning fireplaces will allow the building to serve as “the living room for the hotel,” something Mr. Bashaw said is important for a resort to have so that guests can come together and mingle, relax, and feel at home.

The new Baron’s Cove will also pay homage to the extensive history of the previous hotel and restaurant, a place notable Sag Harbor residents such as John Steinbeck often frequented. Cape Advisors recently partnered with the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum to obtain pieces such as old photographs—even whalebones—to display throughout the grounds as a way to provide insight into the hotel’s history in the broader context of Sag Harbor.

“For us, it was a way to really connect with the history of the community and help market all the wonderful things our guests could see if they went over to the Whaling Museum during their visit,” Mr. Bashaw said. “We’re very excited about that partnership. It gives us at the hotel the opportunity to display some really authentic things to Sag Harbor’s history.”

To prepare for its opening in time for the busiest season here on the East End, Mr. Bashaw said the resort is already taking inquiries for reservations, although room rates have not been established yet. But the hope for Baron’s Cove, he said, is to establish it as a year-round hotel to go with the reputation Sag Harbor has of being one of the only spots in the Hamptons that still thrives even when it isn’t summer.

“It feels like a year-round town more so than a lot of places on the East End,” Mr. Bashaw said. “We’re very excited to see it open. We’re getting to that fun stage where you’re seeing the project come to life. It’s going to be beautiful. We’re thrilled about going to be a part of the Sag Harbor community.”