Riverhead Town ratifies agreement for IDA to use former Recreation Dept. building at Stotzky Park

The Riverhead Industrial Development Agency has moved into the former Recreation Department building at 55 Columbus Avenue, in Stotzky Park.

The Town Board on Tuesday approved a five-year license agreement with the agency, granting it the non-exclusive use of the building. The town retains sole use of the basement, the agreement states. 

The agreement requires the IDA to pay the town $400 per month for the term of license, beginning with the signing of the agreement or possession of the premises, whichever comes first.

The IDA has already moved into the building, according to town officials, but it is not clear when the agency took occupancy. 

At last week’s work session, Deputy Town Attorney Annemarie Prudenti told Town Board members that the IDA was looking for new office space last April or May because the East Lawn Building, which the town sold to J. Petrocelli Development Associates in June 2016, had been sold. County records show that J. Petrocelli Development Associates sold the East Lawn Building last March.

The Recreation Department moved out of the building at Stotzky Park last March, consolidating its staff in new office space in Riverhead Town Hall.

“So we had negotiated a license agreement for a period of time,” Prudenti told the board last week. “The office of the town attorney did some research with the New York State Comptroller’s Office, the Attorney General’s office, and NYSHIP [New York State Health Insurance Program] regarding certain aspects of the license agreement and things that the town could offer with respect to the IDA,” Prudenti said.  

“That said, believe it or not, and I have all the correspondence to back it up, it took basically until about two weeks ago, 10 days ago, to get all those responses,”  Prudenti said.  There was no discussion of what “certain aspects” of the agreement Prudenti was researching concerning things that the town could offer to the IDA.”

 “Hence,” Prudenti concluded, “the agreement is coming to you now, but rent that’s owed from May till today will be required to be paid,” she said. 

The license agreement approved by the board last week was dated May 14, 2024. The resolution authorizing the supervisor to sign the agreement states that the Town Board “ratifies authorization” for the supervisor to sign the document.

Supervisor Tim Hubbard, who was absent from last week’s work session, said after Tuesday’s board meeting that he did not know exactly when the RIDA moved into the Recreation Department Building. “I would guestimate and say January-ish,” he said, meaning this year. Asked if the agency could have been there since last May, Hubbard said, “No, no, because we moved them out of East Lawn. I don’t think they’ve been there a year.”

The $400 per month fee was determined by looking at fees charged to “other entities we’ve had, like the child care up at Stotzky Park,” he said, referring to the Bloom preschool which in 2020 entered into a license agreement with the town for use of the facility on the north end of the Columbus Avenue parking lot.

“But with the IDA, it’s a little different, because they are kind of a branch of the town, but they’re not a branch of the town,” Hubbard said. “We don’t have the control to tell them what to do. The only control we have is who we place on the board. Having said that, that’s why we offered them the lower rate to put them in there,” he said.

“They struggle to make money,” the supervisor said of the IDA. “The misconception out there is — well, actually, it’s not a misconception, it’s the truth. They get money from the projects that they bring into town,” he said. “So people think, ‘Oh, well, they’re going to let everybody come in so they can make more money.’ But that’s not really the case, because they have struggled financially to make ends meet,” Hubbard said. 

“So having that in mind, we offered them a discounted rate for the property,” he said.

The license agreement states the town will be responsible for all utility services, including electric, water and sewer (if applicable), which are included in the license fee.” The IDA is responsible for its own “cable television and internet service,” according to the agreement.

Hubbard said he did not know how much the utility costs for the building are and referred the question to the town financial administrator. A FOIL request for utility bills at the site is pending.

Asked if siting the IDA in a building built for park uses within a town park raises issues involving the alienation of parkland — questions that arose when the town was planning the location of the Peconic Rinks site at Veterans Memorial Park — the supervisor said, “I don’t think it was a necessity for that.”

The town “only got into that a little bit with the ice rink up there and then looking to do other things up and on that property,” Hubbard said, referring to Veterans Memorial Park. “But I don’t think that’s an issue here, because  they’re a function of the town. I mean, they’re not a town entity, but they are attached to the town, so I think that’s what allowed us to do that,” he said.

Hubbard pointed out that the town built a child care center on town land within the park decades ago, where Bloom Preschool is located today. “It’s the same thing,” he said. “So this being a somewhat — a semi branch of the town, I guess is the best way to word it — we felt we could do that. That’s not an issue,” he said.

The approximately 1,500-square-foot building at 55 Columbus Avenue was constructed in 2007 and replaced a smaller office used by the Recreation Department. 

The Recreation Department continues to use the basement for storage, Riverhead Parks and Recreation Superintendent Ray Coyne said. It also will continue to use one of the offices there for storage of documents in locked filing cabinets, Coyne said.

Stotzky Park has been a town park since before 1960, according to Town Board meeting minutes. It was originally known as the Pulaski Street recreation field, but was renamed the Elmer A. Stotzky Memorial Park in August 1964 in memory of a sitting town councilman who died of a heart attack in July 1963 at age 45.  

Alek Lewis contributed reporting.