Oyster Bay negotiating to buy waterfront site owned by Frank M. Flower & Sons

The Town of Oyster Bay is negotiating the purchase of a waterfront property that for years has been part of an industrial stretch on Long Island's North Shore, town officials said. 

The site, 2 Bayview Ave., in the hamlet of Oyster Bay, is owned by Frank M. Flower & Sons, the shellfishing company that held an exclusive lease on 1,400 underwater acres. Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino said the town is working to buy the property. The details of the negotiation were not disclosed. 

If the town acquires the property, it would serve as a linchpin to a larger redevelopment plan and spark a "transformation of the waterfront," Saladino said in a phone interview.

“This would continue to transform the site so that we can embrace a vision that involves input from the residents in Oyster Bay and turns an area that’s in need of cleanup and redevelopment into something very special that everyone can embrace,” Saladino said.

An attorney for Frank M. Flower & Sons said the company declined to comment.

A longtime vision

For decades, Oyster Bay administrations have eyed the properties east of Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park as a new waterfront frontier. Charles Wang, the late former majority owner of the New York Islanders and a co-founder of Computer Associates, bought dozens of properties in the hamlet through his company, Island Properties, Newsday reported in 2001.

At the time, there were concerns over what would happen along the coastline. Later, community leaders in the town expressed hope Wang would lead a series of new developments that would create a new vision of the hamlet, Newsday reported in 2006. The town later announced it would study the area to create a waterfront master plan, according to a 2007 New York Times article. 

Development never came to fruition, and Wang died in 2018. Instead, the area remained mostly industrial until earlier this year, when a demolition crew tore down the Commander Oil tanks — towering metal structures that loomed over the bay. That effort is being led by Renaissance Property Associates, a management company that handled properties owned by Wang.

Saladino said the town has been meeting with the development company and has a shared vision of the next steps for the waterfront. It's not yet clear how the Frank M. Flower property would be used by the town.

Before the former Commander Oil site can be developed, it needs to be remediated. The state Department of Environmental Conservation said there is contamination on the site from its former use as an oil terminal. The agency said an investigation of the soil at the site still needs to take place before a cleanup plan is created. 

A representative for Renaissance Property Associates did not respond to a request for comment.

Seeking public access

Dawn Riley, executive director of Oakcliff Sailing, which is near the Frank M. Flower and Commander Oil tank properties, said if the town does purchase the property, it should maintain public access for residents.

“As long as the Town of Oyster Bay, which is a public entity, helps to preserve waterfront access, which is in the public interest, we think it’s a phenomenal thing,” Riley said in a phone interview.

Rob Brusca, a board member with the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Chamber of Commerce, said the potential acquisition of the property "has been well received with the community figuring it will assure public access to a long-held area of private waterfront."

Brusca, in a statement, said there is an expectation mixed-use development will be built in the adjacent properties and stressed the need for "appropriate sensitivity to its scale, density, and impact to the bay." 

Saladino said he plans to have public meetings to craft a cohesive plan for the waterfront. 

“You work with the public, you find out what they want, and then you can adapt to whatever master plan comes up for the location,” Saladino said.