The public will have a chance to weigh in May 28 on a proposal to exempt a proposed 81-room hotel at the former North Fork Bank headquarters in Mattituck from a hotel moratorium that is expected to be extended for a year.
Pictured Above: The latest rendering of the proposed hotel, submitted to the Southold Town Planning Board in 2024
On May 13, the Southold Town Board held open a public hearing on the waiver, which was requested by the developers. The board will also hold a public hearing at the May 28 meeting on extending the hotel moratorium, which expires June 18, 2025, for another year. The May 28 meeting will be at 4:30 p.m.
The “Mattituck Hotel” project has been controversial for years — an earlier iteration unveiled two years ago proposed a 121-room resort motel, with an indoor water park. It was roundly rebuked by residents of Mattituck.
In 2024, the applicants brought a new proposal, working within the footprint of the existing building, to the Southold Town Planning Board, but it has not proceeded due to the moratorium, which is in place while the town works to update its zoning code.
Several changes that impact the size, scale and location of hotels are included in that zoning update, which is expected to be complete in the winter of 2025-2026.
The property has been owned by the Cardinale family, who own the Mattituck Shopping Plaza and the Jamesport Commons shopping center, since 2014. It had formerly been a supermarket, but was converted to North Fork Bank’s corporate offices in the early 1980s and expanded during their ownership to 77,000 square feet, and then served as a Capital One call center when North Fork Bank was purchased by Capital One in 2006, said the project’s attorney, Christopher Kent, of Farrell Fritz P.C. at the May 13 hearing.
Capital One “tried to sell the building, but couldn’t find any buyers, and they auctioned it off in 2014,” said Mr. Kent, adding that his client “made efforts for four years to rent it out as office space, but it was just too large. It did not fit the market demand at that time. It will never be reoccupied as an office building.”
While Mr. Kent said the “longstanding vacant substantial office building has for many years cast a negative image at the gateway to Southold and Mattituck,” some residents say they prefer its current status to a hotel.
“The building’s vacancy is really much preferred to the prospect of what I feel is going to be a real detriment to my community,” said Catherine Harper of Mattituck at the public hearing.
“This building has been abandoned for 16 years. It’s amazing that the Cardinales hadn’t thought of this proposal 16 years ago,” said her husband, Robert Harper. “This is going to add traffic… The buildings that the Cardinales have built, I think, personally, are out of character with our community… The Mattituck Plaza, I think, is a blight on our community, but it’s there. If they want to give back, perhaps it could be used as low-income or workforce housing.”
“I see this as no different from any hotel proposal,” he added, in response to the applicants’ argument that this project is different because it is an adaptive reuse of an existing building instead of a new building. “I see no reason why they should be exempt from the moratorium.”
Group for the East End Director of Conservation Advocacy Jennifer Hartnagel said The Group opposes the waiver because the town is “currently and diligently updating the zoning code. Allowing an exception for this large-scale project would be counterproductive at this stage of the zoning code update process.”
“There is high demand [for hotels], but these uses will have some level of impact on infrastructure, traffic, quality of life, water resources and environmental quality,” she added.
“The town waited over a decade for the Comprehensive Plan to be enacted. We’re now in the throes of new zoning. I feel strongly we should wait for the full outcome of the new zoning code to be enacted and put in place,” said Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association President Chris Shashkin.
While Mr. Kent said he believes the proposal would conform to both the existing code and the new code, the town had only just held its first public forum on the new code the previous evening, May 12, and changes could be made before it is adopted later this year or in early 2026.
“Our new code hasn’t been adopted yet,” said Councilman Greg Doroski. “It is more restrictive in total room count and number of accessory uses.”
Mr. Doroski also asked Mr. Kent if his clients would pledge to not seek tax abatements for the project from the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency.
Mr. Kent said the IDA doesn’t grant tax abatements for hotels, based on his experience with another application he worked with, but Mr. Doroski disagreed. Another hotel proposal, The Enclaves in Southold, received IDA tax abatements in 2024, despite opposition in Southold Town.
The public hearing will continue on May 28.
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