Southampton Town Board Votes Tuesday To Put Out Bid To Demolish Old Westhampton Community Center

The former Westhampton Community Center on Mill Road is nearly one step closer to demolition.

The 58-year-old building was condemned in 2015 and has sat vacant since then, riddled with asbestos and an eyesore to passersby. Two failed attempts by Southampton Town in recent years to sell the property led the Town Board to vote in January to demolish the structure.

The board was expected to vote Tuesday to issue a notice seeking bidders for the demolition.

Town officials considered restoring the 2,640-square-foot building in the past, with a price tag at around $350,000, but its extreme state of disrepair led them to agree that the building needs to either be sold as is or torn down.

“It’s prohibitive to try to restore,” Town Board member John Bouvier said. “We had it out for bid with some people, and that was their feedback, too—that it just didn’t make sense for them to invest that kind of money into this. And it is a pretty old building.”

Efforts to establish a new community center in Westhampton have been underway for years, but officials have been unable to find a practical solution. Mr. Bouvier, who is spearheading the project, tried to open a center in the Hampton Business District at the Francis S. Gabreski Airport a year ago, but he said the lease proposal came out to be more expensive than the town would have liked.

He said that they asked Rechler Equity Partners, the developer leasing the buildings at the Hampton Business District, to return with a different proposal, but they have not yet done so.

Co-owner Mitchell Rechler said in an interview last month that it was “unlikely” that the community center would come to the business park.

Mr. Bouvier is currently looking at existing buildings in the Westhampton area, at 4,000 to 5,000 square feet, that the town could renovate.

“I like the idea of redevelopment. I would’ve loved to rebuild the old community center, but it just didn’t make sense,” the councilman said, adding that they would like a larger building and a property with a larger parking area.

In the meantime, Mr. Bouvier said that the town is in agreement with the Westhampton Free Library to run senior programs in its new additional 2,500 square feet of program space that is expected to be completed in May.

Estimated costs for the old community center’s demolition and asbestos abatement were not available, said Christine Fetten, the town director of municipal works. The final cost is determined by the winning bidder.

Mr. Bouvier said that the town would most likely try to sell the vacant parcel once the building is demolished, but it was too early to say for how much.