Historic downtown home won’t be replaced with parking lot, developer decides to restore it instead

Following widespread backlash to a developer’s plans to raze a dilapidated home in Riverhead’s downtown historic district, developer Joe Petrocelli has backed away from talk of demolition and has decided instead to restore the 112-year-old home.

Petrocelli’s original plans to demolish the historic Howell House on East Main Street and replace it with a parking lot were opposed by Riverhead’s Landmarks Preservation Committee, which denied Petrocelli’s demolition application in June.

Petrocelli’s company had appealed the denial this month, but after talks with committee members and town officials, the developer announced today that the house will be restored.

“Mr. Petrocelli is our hometown hero,” said Councilwoman Jodi Giglio, who facilitated talks with Petrocelli and the Landmarks Preservation Committee to keep the building intact. “We want to thank him very much for agreeing to take this on.”

The parking lot originally planned to replace the East Main Street home would have provided parking for the Preston House next door, another historic home the builder has restored.

He now plans to build a parking lot behind the Preston House, which will require the demolition of two homes in the rear property that are not of the same historic significance as the Howell House, according to members of the Landmarks Preservation Committee.

The Howell House will be Petrocelli’s third restoration of a historic building in downtown Riverhead. Just down the street, the historic East Lawn building stands newly renovated following Petrocelli’s major restoration project there over the past year. And right next door to the dilapidated Howell House, renovations are coming to a close on the Preston House, which Petrocelli is turning into a restaurant with an attached boutique hotel.

“I love old things, and I love to restore them,” said Petrocelli, whose company is also the developer of the Long Island Aquarium across the street from the Howell House. “This is a great opportunity to fix this building up.”

He does not yet have any solid plans for what he will do with the building once restorations have been completed.

To offset the cost of restoration, which the company’s architect estimated at $670,000, Petrocelli’s company will take advantage of federal restoration tax credits available for construction within the National Register Districts for historic preservation, of which Riverhead’s downtown historic district is one.

Giglio and members of the Landmarks Preservation Commitee worked with Petrocelli to discuss the tax credits and determine an alternative location for a parking lot to the north of the Preston House.

At a press conference this afternoon in front of the Howell House, Supervisor Sean Walter told Petrocelli that the town is committed to working with the developer to acquire “whatever approvals you need to get the parking back there and have this house preserved.”