Former Southampton Village Car Dealership Will Be Turned Into Incubator For Entrepreneurs

A former car dealership at the intersection of Hampton and Flying Point roads on the edge of Southampton Village, once considered as the site of a new supermarket, was purchased for $4.5 million last week and is expected to be renovated into office space for a local entrepreneurial group.

Bruce Lewin, who has a home in Southampton Village, purchased the building at 630 Hampton Road on Friday from the Glennon family and immediately entered into a 25-year lease agreement with the Spur, a members-only group that offers shared office space, where entrepreneurs can share business ideas.

Ashley Heather of Water Mill started the Spur in January. The Spur is a private club and work space for entrepreneurs, which can be used by members of the group who are starting media and technology, health and wellness, retail and fashion, and food and beverage businesses.

Mr. Heather first started the Spur as a pop-up at the Southampton Social Club. After outgrowing that space, the Spur moved down the street to the red barn at 280 Elm Street, a space that has quickly become too small as well.

He also is behind i-hamptons, a not-for-profit community organization that provides resources and support to local innovators and entrepreneurs.

Plans for the former dealership building include gutting it and then creating individual work spaces where the garage bays are now located. The garage doors will remain so the occupant can work with the doors open or shut. Just outside of the space will be a deck.

The plan also includes a restaurant, a wellness center and a second floor above the old showroom.

“When this thing gets cleaned up—and, believe me, it doesn’t need much—it’s going to be phenomenal,” Mr. Lewin said on Friday.

He said he’s had his sights on the building for the past few years, and thought of opening it as a restaurant or catering facility. But, at the time, the asking price was $6.5 million.

In 2011, the owners of Fresh Market, a Greensboro, North Carolina-based supermarket chain, had hopes of purchasing the 68,950-square-foot former dealership in the village’s eastern corner from the Glennon family, using the site to erect a nearly 17,000-square-foot supermarket. But the project fell through after village officials declined to back a plan to circumvent the lot’s existing highway business district zoning by allowing supermarkets on a special permit basis.

Utilizing the building as a club with office space for its members fits under the current zoning—and is a use the current mayor is happy with.

On Friday, Mayor Michael Irving said he was glad to see the building taken over by Mr. Heather, adding that he was excited to see the sorts of things the Spur can bring to the area.

Bruce Bockman, the chairman of the board of Spur Innovation Inc., is a year-round resident of Southampton Village and said he thinks the village can benefit from an organization such as the Spur.

The Spur is based on the idea of a co-mingle space, where people from different backgrounds can get together to discuss business ideas with others. In 1998, Mr. Bockman was one of the forces behind TechSpace and Workhouse, other shared spaces for entrepreneurs that helped fuel the success of start-up businesses like Priceline.

“We think that, with this, we can start bringing new companies in—younger companies, modern companies—other than retail and food, and do something really positive for the business rejuvenation for the Village of Southampton,” Mr. Bockman said.