Oheka Castle condominium plan approved by Huntington Town Board, with conditions

Gary Melius can move forward with a plan to build luxury condominiums on the grounds of Oheka Castle but the Huntington Town Board has set several conditions.

The board on March 14 approved an additional use permit to Melius' Huntington-based Kahn Property Owner LLC, the entity that owns the castle.

Melius may now file a site plan application to build a four-story condominium with 95 housing units on the west side of East Gate Drive, north of Colonial Drive, called Residences at Oheka II. The units are expected to start at $1.8 million.

But Melius, or the developer, will have to give $2 million to a fund that will primarily be used to preserve the castle. The fund will be managed by a town agency and Huntington will have the discretion for preservation of another historical property within the town.

Each condo unit owner will have to pay 15% of their condominium association dues annually to a separate fund that will be dedicated to maintaining the castle. That fund will be managed by the condominium association.

The developer also must get permission from the Cold Spring Country Club to use East Gate Drive to gain access to the castle. 

“I feel good about the board’s decision, but I still have another hurdle with the country club,” Melius told Newsday on Wednesday. “But I’m not worried about it.”

The property also cannot be further subdivided.

Melius said the castle is in receivership to manage its finances. A receivership is a court-appointed party responsible for managing business operations.

Attorneys for the country club have previously said they would not grant Melius permission to use the roadway and opposed his latest plan. Howard Avrutine, an attorney representing the country club, told Newsday on Thursday he was not authorized to speak on the matter. 

Melius needed the additional use permit because the castle is in the town's historic building overlay district, which aims to protect historic buildings. Town code allows the town board to consider uses for historic buildings in the district other than what's allowed under the overlay district zoning.

The board also voted to remove covenants and restrictions on the property that were imposed as a condition of a 2012 approval for a 190-unit senior community that Melius sought to build in an arrangement with the country club. The covenants and restrictions were to preserve a golf course, address the potential need for a traffic signal and contemplate a future sewer system. 

The board voted 4-1, with member Joan Cergol recusing herself.

Melius' first attempt to build housing on castle property in 2012 fell apart. His second attempt in 2020, when he proposed constructing 90 condominiums in a four-story stone building with parking underneath on the lower portion of the castle’s front lawn, did not have community support and he withdrew the plan. In between those two plans, Melius was shot in 2014. The case remains unsolved.

Michael Archbold, vice chairman of the Cold Spring Hills Civic Association, said the group supports Melius' latest plan as long as access to the development is restricted to East Gate Drive. 

Huntington Supervisor Ed Smyth called the board’s action a “lifeline” for a unique property.

“It’s something that we have to be mindful of that we ensure that properties within the town, commercial properties for that matter, remain economically viable," Smyth said. "This is a very complicated way of doing it but I think it works.”