The Riverhead Town Board closed a public hearing on the site plan and special permit application for a new, five-story hotel adjacent to the town’s new Town Square on East Main Street Wednesday evening, after hearing two-and-a-half hours of mixed and at times contentious comment.
Pictured Above: Councilman Ken Rothwell and Councilwoman Denise Merrifield with a drawing showing the hotel as viewed across the Town Square from the Peconic River.
The five-story “Peconic Hotel,” slated to be a part of the Hilton Tapestry Collection, is currently proposed as a five-story, 69,738-square-foot building containing a 94-room hotel, retail spaces, a restaurant, café and nine parking stalls on the lowest level for employees. It was initially slated to include 76 hotel rooms rooms and 12 penthouse condos.
The project is being proposed by J. Petrocelli Contracting, named last year the town’s Master Developer of the Town Square project. The hotel would be on the east side of the Town Square, on property acquired by the town several years ago. The town entered a contract last year to sell the property to Joe Petrocelli’s company for $2.6, with several conditions, including that the project receive its site plan and special permit approval. It would be adjacent to the East End Arts complex, which is also expected to be raised and reconfigured as part of the Town Square project.
“I’m very proud of where we are tonight. It took a lot of effort to get us here,” said Joe Petrocelli as he and his team presented their plans at the opening of the public hearing. “We have the momentum. We have to move on this as a town.”
The lack of on-site parking, and the proposal’s reliance on a temporary arrangement to pay the town to use 100 spaces of a municipal lot north of The Suffolk Theater for valet parking until the town builds a new parking garage, were a prime concern of residents.
That issue was tops for Mike Foley of Reeves Park, who said he recently took his wife out to lunch at a new restaurant downtown on a weekday afternoon and had difficulty finding parking, especially since his wife has a handicapped parking placard.
“Parking, to me, is really the most important component of the future of this town,” he said. “If the parking we have now is insufficent, it’s going to be a continuing problem that could strangle downtown.”
Some downtown business and property owners pleaded with the town to move ahead on the project, which was designed after a market study found that a hotel would likely be successful in this location.
Peggy Kneski, who owns the Riverhead Flower Shop on East Main Street said she thinks it’s “wonderful that a hotel is coming to Main Street. There’s a lot of talk on social media that we don’t need more hotels, but that is simply not the case. I know that from my customers, clients and their families. I’m pleased Mr. Petrocelli is doing this. The taxpayers need to come there and sit on a Sunday afternoon or a Friday night and see how many people are coming out of the Suffolk Theater, strolling and really wanting something to do.”
Mr. Foley said he’d tried to go to her flower shop six or seven times and “had to circle to find parking.”
“Give me some guestimate on when this parking garage will be there. That is an integral part of this public hearing,” he said.
Eric Russo, Mr. Petrocelli’s attorney, said the town is “looking for bond financing and grants” to move forward with parking garage process, and his client will pay for parking, whether in the lot as is proposed now, or in the garage.
Martin Sendlewski, an architect who chairs the town’s public parking committee, also raised concerns about the parking, though he said he was raising those concerns as a private citizen, not on behalf of the parking committee.
He said there are currently 49 parking spaces on East Main Street between Roanoke and East avenues, and the planned development would reduce that number to 21, and the valet area in front of the proposed hotel would reduce the number by a further four to seven spaces.
Board members Joann Waski and Denise Merrifield both grilled Mr. Sendlewski over his recent applications to the board for projects of his own that didn’t include parking.
“I think the public should be aware of your relationship to the other property,” said Ms. Merrifield, a former prosecutor who has made a habit of grilling members of the public who speak at hearings.
Laura Jens-Smith, a former Town Supervisor and current chair of the Riverhead Democratic Committee, asked the board to provide a detailed cost-benefit analysis of the project, both as originally proposed and with the new layout, showing “the total public investment associated with the project, the value of public land, infrastructure improvements and any future maintenance that may ultimately fall on the taxpayer.”
Ms. Merrifield interrupted Ms. Jens-Smith, repeatedly asking her why she wasn’t disclosing to people in the room that she was the chair of the town Democratic Party. Ms. Jens-Smith countered that if she needed to disclose that, all members of the Republican town committee who speak should also have to disclose their political affiliations as well.
“Do you need to know what color underwear I’m wearing as well? I think this is ridiculous,” said Ms. Jens-Smith, exasperated, as she left the podium.
Desmond Wong of Baiting Hollow weighed in via Zoom.
As he had at a recent hearing over the proposed condemnation of the Long Island Science Center’s property on the west side of the Town Square, he asked why every problem in downtown Riverhead has the same solution — letting Mr. Petrocelli handle it.
Mr. Wong questioned the parking plan, and also called into question the town’s decision that work downtown, including the Town Square and the hotel, didn’t need extensive review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) because it was a flood mitigation project.
“A private Hilton is not flood mitigation,” said Mr. Wong, urging the board hold to open the hearing and to undergo a supplemental environmental analysis of the project as currently designed and come up with a parking plan “that does not depend on a garage that doesn’t exist.”
Cindy Clifford of Riverhead said she believes Mr. Petrocelli “brought a lot to downtown Riverhead and we love that.” She said she’s impressed by the design of the project and how higher stories are set back on the building to make it seem less massive.
But, she said, she doesn’t believe the project will have no environmental impact or impact on traffic, and she believes the town’s habit of “neg dec’ing projects,” or deciding they don’t need extensive SEQRA review, “is done way too many times, in my book.
“Will the plan to elevate East End Arts’ property be done in tandem with the hotel? Otherwise, there’s a concern that possible flooding at this point would leave the East End Arts property vulnerable due to the hotel’s new retaining wall and elevated height,” she said.
“Has a building permit already been issued? Because it appears construction is already in progress,” she asked. “If so, I’m not sure why we’re even here. The town is asking for comments on a project that appears to have already gotten the go-ahead to start. Should we take this as nothing more than a formality, or, as a former supervisor once effectively said — initials YA (Yvette Aguiar)— ‘just because we have a public hearing, doesn’t mean we have to listen to you.’ It seems unlikely that anything said is going to alter these plans.”
Site work already appears to already be underway at the property.
Ms. Clifford also expressed concern that an additional restaurant and coffee shop could create additional competition for existing downtown restaurants.
John McAuliff of Riverhead was unimpressed with the design.
“I’ve come to think of this hotel as Riverhead’s version of the Trump ballroom. It’s too big, too flashy, and an insult to our heritage,” he said. “The arrogant spirit is analogous…. The hotel will have a terrible impact on the Town Square and downtown Riverhead…. It takes up as much space as the Town Square, with five modern stories, overwhelming and dominating the three-story, art deco Suffolk Theater.”
Mike Foley also said he hoped the applicant wasn’t planning to seek benefits from the town’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA).
Mr. Russo said the applicants have already applied to the IDA for benefits, asking for a refund of sales and use tax that would total $1,361,116.47, a mortgage tax reduction of $147,028 and payments in lieu of real estate taxes (PILOTs) that have not yet been determined because the IDA has not yet told them how long a real estate tax abatement period they will receive. He said they applied for 20 years, but the IDA cannot proceed with their application until the site plan is approved.
Mr. Russo said the project is currently slated to cost more than $35 million, of which $19.6 million will be financed, $1 million comes from a New York State Restore grant and Mr. Petrocelli is contributing $14.545 million.
Toqui Terchun of the Greater Calverton Civic Association said she didn’t think the project should include IDA benefits. She said had also heard the original plan was to have pop-up business space on the ground floor, but hadn’t seen that in the current plan. She suggested the restaurant be on the top floor of the hotel, where it would have panoramic views of the Peconic River.
Wayne Steck, the developer of the Summerwind Building, urged the board to move forward.
“Does he need IDA money? Most likely he does,” he said. “I’ve been there. That hotel isn’t going to be full day one. He needs to get good tenants. He needs to build out that space. He’s taking a huge risk. He’s investing millions of dollars downtown. He needs that. The bank that he goes to get his loans, if they see those huge expenditures of taxes up front, he can’t get enough money to finish the construction.
“There are 11 people here who are not town staff, the press or Petrocelli’s team,” said Councilwoman Joann Waski as the hearing was nearing a close. “It seems like the same people that come to every single meeting that are in the negative about anything this board tries to do. They’re always saying we’re doing something wrong or our pockets are being lined. There’s nothing more upsetting to me than having someone insinuate that, over and over. I’m a lifelong resident. I have a business one block away. I’m invested in this and I’m tired of what’s going on.”
Other members of the board seemed ready to vote to move the project forward.
“I’m very proud of where we are tonight. It took a lot of effort to get us here,” said Councilman Bob Kern.
“I think it’s been a great collaboration of your ideas and designs and knowledge to revitalize Riverhead,” Councilman Ken Rothwell said to Mr. Petrocelli. “We’ve been listening to the public … there have been a lot of revisions throughout this process. Thank you for your collaborative effort.”
“We’re all excited about the future, and it’s really happening and Riverhead is changing,” said Town Supervisor Jerry Halpin. “This site plan is moving forward.”
The board held the public hearing open for written comments until June 20. Then everyone ran home to watch the Knicks.
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