Developer downsizes plans for downtown Riverhead

BY MITCHELL FREEDMAN | mitchell.freedman@newsday.com

May 7, 2008

The planned redevelopment of downtown Riverhead took a dramatic new turn yesterday, as officials from Apollo Real Estate Advisors -- the firm doing the $120 million facelift -- told the town board it is cutting the size of its first building nearly in half.

That building, on the north side of East Main Street, will contain a 90-room hotel, a six-screen movie theater, and nearly 10,000 square feet of retail space.

But the proposed total of 116,107 square feet will not even come close to the 207,000-square-foot project Apollo originally planned.

"We've scaled back and revised the size of the building substantially," said Kevin Davis, a partner in Apollo. "It's 56 percent of the size that we presented in October 2006."

The building facade has also changed. The modern-looking skin that looked like a ballpark has given way to a more traditional brick accented with glass to better blend in with the old downtown street.

But while the first Apollo building has been downsized, its construction schedule is speeding up. Plans now call for the site plan of the new hotel-theater complex to be filed by summer, and for the last operating store in the construction area -- Bagel Lovers -- to move out in September.

The existing stores on North Main Street would be demolished in November. Construction would start in January 2009 and be completed by June 2010.

As the building on East Main Street goes up, work would also start on a multistory parking garage behind it, which would be connected to a hotel entrance on the third floor.

But because that area would also be the staging area for construction equipment and supplies, Apollo will have to shift its schedule and do some off-site pre-fabrication.

There is one serious outstanding issue. Apollo will have to buy about 12,000 square feet of land from Riverhead's municipal parking district to build the garage. And the town and Apollo must still agree on how to split the construction cost and potential income from the parking garage.

Other complex problems facing the two buildings on the south side of East Main Street -- phase II and phase III of the downtown redevelopment plan -- include a complex environmental review.

And Apollo still needs to acquire the property within the town's urban renewal district to put up its two buildings. The town has discussed condemnation, but has not made a firm commitment, while property owners are seeking a price far more than the appraised value.