Former Blockbuster building to get a facelift

Before Netflix mail-order and video streaming services disrupted the brick-and-mortar DVD and videotape rental business, the commercial building at 1125 Old Country Road was a bustling place. 

Blockbuster Video, the largest tenant in the 9,000-square-foot, one-story building on a 1.4-acre lot adjoining the then-Waldbaum’s shopping center, drew hundreds of people daily to browse the selection of movies for rent.

But the national video rental chain’s business, already battered by competition from Netflix and video on demand, collapsed in the Great Recession, and by 2010, Blockbuster had filed for bankruptcy.

The Riverhead Blockbuster store was shuttered and the storefront it once occupied has been vacant since, except for a pop-up Halloween store. 

Two other tenants — an AT&T store and a nail salon — occupy the other two storefronts in the building. 

The property was purchased last month by Mattituck builder Paul Pawlowski, who has installed a new roof and will upgrade the building’s facade, including new windows. He will repave the parking lot and sidewalks, and install landscaping and new street trees.

The current site plan was approved in 1989, before most of the existing commercial development on Route 58 was built.

“It’s a nice cleanup for this site and a nice improvement to what’s there,” Riverhead Senior Planner Matt Charters told the Planning Board at its meeting Thursday. 

The new owner will also be opening a 24-foot-wide cross-access easement with the shopping center to the east. Another 24-foot-wide cross-access is required with the property to the west, the former long-vacant Sargent’s Recreation. The cross-easements will allow traffic to move between sites without using the congested county roadway. 

The Planning Board last week granted administrative approval to Pawlowski’s site plan application for facade improvements. The builder has already begun site work. 

The Architectural Review Board will review the building elevations at its meeting this week, Charters said. 

Pawlowski said a tenant is to be determined for the 6,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by Blockbuster. The other two tenants occupy a total of 3,000 square feet, he said. Pawlowski said he hopes the improvements will make the site more attractive for a new tenant in the vacant space.

Columbia Care wanted to site a medical marijuana dispensary there, but after opposition from residents concerned about the site’s proximity to Riverhead High School, as well as from members of the Town Board, Columbia Care changed its plans and opened a dispensary at 1333 East Main Street instead.