Oyster Bay considers transforming harbor into vibrant waterfront destination

Mallory Square in Key West, Florida. The Inner Harbor in Baltimore. San Diego's Seaport Village.

All contain scenic vistas with restaurants, shopping and cultural significance, and are waterfront templates that Oyster Bay's top official envisions replicated on the North Shore.

The demolition of the decades-old oil tanks, which overlooked Oyster Bay Harbor, are a step in that direction, Supervisor Joseph Saladino said.

A demolition crew recently razed the former Commander Oil tanks in Oyster Bay, clearing the towering metal structures from the waterfront for the first time in decades. Their removal has opened up a swath of land less than a half-mile east of Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park. 

Commander Oil used the site as a major storage facility, capable of holding 400,000 gallons of oil. Since the early 1960s, there have been 21 storage tanks on the property. Commander Oil Corp. bought the property in 1971 before Commander Holdings LLC purchased it in 2001, according to state and county documents. From the late 1800s to the early 1930s, the property was used as a sawmill, an ice plant and a coal yard, state Department of Environmental Conservation documents show.

Saladino said in a phone interview that the area's revitalization is part of “very important legacy work" underway throughout the town. He said he’s open to proposals that expand public access and contain a mixed-use element.

“There’s so many places where they have properly taken advantage of the gorgeous views and everything that it has to offer,” Saladino said. “I could envision a public promenade, perhaps something over water — partially on land, partially over the water — as we’ve seen in other places throughout New York State and across the country.”

The town has not received an application for a development on the land, which is zoned for light industrial use, said Brian Nevin, a town spokesman.

The property is contaminated, and the DEC has designated it an active brownfield cleanup site.

There are forever chemicals in the groundwater beneath the property, and there are soil chemicals and metals that appear to be "related to the site’s usage as an oil terminal," according to the DEC. 

The DEC said an investigation of the property still needs to be completed. After that, the site's owner will submit a final remedial investigation report to the DEC and state Department of Health. 

A representative for Renaissance Property Associates is listed on the demolition permit, Nevin said. The management company, which handled property owned by Charles Wang, the former majority owner of the New York Islanders and a co-founder of Computer Associates, did not respond to requests for comment. Wang died in 2018. 

Christine Suter, executive director of Friends of the Bay, said the nonprofit sees the tanks' removal as a “new chapter for downtown Oyster Bay.”

“There’s potential, I think, for major improvement over what is currently at the site,” Suter said in a phone interview.

Future plans, she said, must protect the health of the bay.

“We continue to act as watchdogs, monitoring the activity and any future cleanup or development plans to ensure that there is minimal environmental impact on the bay and surrounding waters,” Suter said.

The town renovated Firemen's Field in 2023, the parking lot that abuts the Long Island Rail Road and Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park. Town officials want to revamp the waterfront, and officials have discussed the idea of a new restaurant anchoring the beach. The town installed raised crosswalks in the hamlet's downtown in 2024, which boost pedestrian safety.

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ