The Riverhead Landmarks Preservation Commission is proposing the nomination of an area north of Main Street to the state and national registers of historic places.
Members of the commission, led by chairman Richard Wines, gave a presentation to the town board Wednesday morning to pitch the plan. Town Board members, who withdrew support of a Main Road historic district nomination in 2014 in reaction to landowner opposition, gave the commission the go-ahead to test the waters for the downtown district by holding a public information meeting. The commission hopes to set the meeting for May 4. Notices of the meeting will be mailed by the town to all property owners within the district.
There are 147 properties in the proposed district, 97 percent of them considered historic, Wines said. Only five are improved with structures less than 50 years old and 133 have structures built between 1840 and 1940. The State Historic Preservation Office determined in 2013 that the district is eligible for listing on the National Register, Wines said.
“The Landmarks Commission is not going to move forward with a nomination without support from the town board and a sense of support from the property owners,” Wines said.
Seventy-five percent of them are income-producing properties; the other 25 percent are private homeowners. If the nomination is successful, the income-producing properties would be eligible for a combined 40-percent federal and state restoration tax credits, Wines said.
The designation itself imposes no restrictions on property owners, Wines stressed. It carries with it benefits in the form of income tax credits and eligibility for grants. He said it also increases property values.
Joe Petrocelli, a principal in the company that built the aquarium and Hyatt Place hotel, who recently purchased a the Preston House, a historic home on the corner of East Main Street and Ostrander Avenue and is in contract to purchase the landmark East Lawn building from the town, also attended Wednesday’s work session to ask the town board to designate the Preston House as a town landmark. The board agreed and will schedule a joint hearing with the Landmarks Commission on the designation.
Petrocelli is nearly finished with the complete restoration of the exterior of the Preston House.
“It’s fully restored exactly as it was,” Petrocelli said. He is seeking to build a five-story boutique hotel behind and attached to the historic home. He’s worked with the Landmarks Preservation Commission for more than a year on renditions of a design for the new building
Downtown Riverhead Historic District presentation
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