Local residents anxious for an update on the long-anticipated rehab of a vacant eyesore on Flanders Road were disappointed when the developer didn’t show for the Flanders, Riverside, Northampton Community Association meeting Monday night.
Developer Island Properties of Farmingville was scheduled to update the community on its plans for a new health club at the site of the old Peconic Health and Racquet Club building on Flanders Road — formerly known as Seven Zs, FRNCA president Ron Fisher said.
Becki Edmundson, a spokeswoman for Island Properties, said Tuesday there had been a “misunderstanding” about the meeting.
Fisher said he was “disappointed” by the no-show. “Nevertheless, it’s a great project and I wish the community had one last opportunity to hear about it and ask questions before the building permits were issued,” he said. FRNCA planned to give the developer a letter in support of the project on behalf of the community.
“This is one of the most blighted sites on Flanders Road. It’s been abandoned for over 10 years, it’s boarded up, there are graffiti, there are weeds… it’s awful, but it’s in a beautiful piece of property and we are looking forward to see it change,” he said.
Fisher said Island Properties told him they will not be back for a future presentation since they have their town approvals and they don’t feel the need to make another community presentation.
The developer’s engineer Jaclyn Peranteau, with Prime Engineering in Holtsville, confirmed in an interview that the project has obtained approvals from all required agencies, including, she said, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Suffolk County health department, and that they were confident the project would move forward.
“We are just waiting for the town attorney to get back to us to finalize some paperwork,” she said.
Currently, the project is still being reviewed by the Southampton Town Planning Board due to “a title issue having to do with an old mortgage,” she said, declining further comment.
Multiple calls to the Southampton Town planning department seeking comment on the status of the application were not returned.
A long-awaited project
Several projects had been proposed in the past for the property at 1140 Flanders Road which is zoned Resort Waterfront Business and is about three acres, with almost half of that under water. It was been vacant since 2005 when Peconic Health and Racquet Club closed its doors.
Island Properties decided to redevelop it with a similar type of business and in 2015 they filed the current application with Southampton Town.
Peranteau said that the new 10,000-square-foot building will have two tenants. A new health club tenant will occupy 8,168 square feet, while a meditation/massage center will be the second tenant occupying the almost 1,917 square feet remaining.
The project will be “redeveloped into a gym/spa with a juice bar, spinning, yoga & fitness classes, as well as a main floor gym area. There will be large windows in the back of the building overlooking the beautiful Reeves Bay, Marina and salt water in-ground swimming pool,” said Edmundson in an email.
“This project will certainly generate jobs and beautify the area. It will also create a destination for people to go to. We are anxious to move forward,” Peranteau said.
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