Riverhead development meeting draws optimistic crowd

A general mood of optimism spread through the standing-room-only crowd that had gathered Friday to discuss downtown Riverhead development efforts.

After an hour of discussion in the empty storefront on East Main Street, the 150 business owners, developers and landlords agreed that economic recovery - if not just around the corner - was at least on the way.

"We don't see this every day. We don't see this unity," said Eric Alexander, executive director of Vision Long Island, a planning organization that's been involved in about half of Long Island's recent downtown redevelopment projects. "The folks who know how to build are in this room . . . and the trends are on your side. In 20 years the baby boomers will retire out of their houses, and they'll want to go somewhere [such as apartments envisioned for downtown Riverhead]."

Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter said there would be no immediate impact from the meeting - no new projects started or building permits issued.

But he pledged to create a unified economic development department in town hall within six months - a one-stop office where new projects could be filed and reviewed, and he said the town was committed to acting on all properly engineered applications within 60 days.

"The answer to downtown [development] is in this room," Walter said. "The bottom line for us is that we have to take care of people and create jobs."

There already are some new construction projects taking place in downtown Riverhead, including two new buildings that combine residential space on the upper floors and commercial use on the street level.

And James Bissett has started clearing land for his 100-room hotel, which will be next to the Atlantis aquarium. The hotel will also offer more display space for the aquarium.

While the meeting was taking place, Bob Castaldi, the developer who bought the 800-seat Suffolk Theater on East Main Street in 2005, could look out a window and see the boarded-up art deco movie house across the street.

His contract called for the theater to reopen by February 2008, but he has been tied up in litigation with the town for two years.

Castaldi said there seems to be a new pro-development attitude in the town, and he expects to have a new contract signed with the town in the next few weeks.