Town makes $500,000 counter-offer to builder interested in Second St. firehouse

Riverhead Town would like to move forward with the sale of the Second Street Firehouse to builder Bob Castaldi after all. But now, instead of a live dinosaur attraction inhabiting the former Riverhead Fire Department headquarters, the town is looking to use the space as an agritourism center — a home for the indoor farmers market on the first floor and offices for the L.I. Farm Bureau, the L.I. Wine Council and Riverhead Chamber of Commerce on the second floor.

The board held an impromptu special meeting during the work session to approve a resolution formally offering Castaldi the firehouse site for $500,000.

Councilwoman Jodi Giglio cast the lone dissenting vote, arguing that the town should get a new appraisal before making a deal with any purchaser. She said the last appraisal of the site, which included land that would not be sold to Castaldi, was for $1.8 million in 2009. The town should not sell the building without an updated appraisal, the councilwoman said.

“This is a very haphazard way to sell a town asset,” Giglio told the board.

The town issued a request for proposals last year for renovation and reuse of the structure. Supervisor Sean Walter advocated accepting a proposal submitted at that time by Castaldi, who last year finished renovating the historic Suffolk Theater on Main Street. Castaldi had a Japanese live-action dinosaur attraction lined up as a tenant. The board eventually rejected his proposal, with council members James Wooten, George Gabrielsen and Jodi Giglio deciding against it — after initially giving the idea at least tacit approval at a work session, prompting Castaldi to hire an engineer to do an assessment of the structure.

The builder was upset with the town board’s about-face.

Today, Castaldi said he is still interested in buying the property, but would have to think about the price. He said he’d like to find out what the town wants to do with the space, because no one had spoken to him about the latest idea for its use.

“The last thing I heard, the town was considering moving town hall offices into the firehouse,” Castaldi said. He said he is also waiting to hear about the bid he submitted for renovating the historic East Lawn building, which he said is in urgent need of intervention.

“I’m interested in restoring and saving historical buildings in downtown Riverhead,” Castaldi said. “The architecture is what makes downtown Riverhead unique. That’s what I like. That’s what I do.”

But with tenants such as the farmers market and nonprofit agencies, how will the builder recoup his investment and earn income from it?

“That’s something Bob is trying to figure out right now,” Walter said.

The supervisor said the use is not set in stone. “If he needs to find different tenants in order to make this work, that would be fine,” Walter said. The most important thing is to get the property into private hands and on the tax rolls, he said.

The grant application being prepared by Riverhead Community Development director Chris Kempner would not lock the town into the firehouse location even if it is approved by the state. Kempner told board members today that the idea of the agritourism center has been very well received by workgroups reviewing prospective state grant applications, but the town would need to select a location for the center to make the application viable. The application is due June 16, she said.

That information is what prompted today’s discussion of selling the firehouse to Castaldi in a deal that would require the building to be renovated as the agri-tourism center.