Riverhead moves to condemn science center’s East Main Street property

The Riverhead Town Board voted Tuesday to move forward with eminent domain proceedings against the Long Island Science Center’s downtown property, adopting a findings statement that says acquisition of 111 E. Main St. is necessary to complete the town square project.

The resolution passed 3-1, with one abstention. Council Members Denise Merrifield, Joann Waski and Ken Rothwell voted yes. Supervisor Jerry Halpin voted no. Council Member Bob Kern abstained.

The resolution authorizes the town to proceed under Article 2 of the state Eminent Domain Procedure Law to acquire fee title to the property, owned by A Place for Learning Inc., the nonprofit corporation that operates the Long Island Science Center.

The 111 E. Main St. building, the former West Marine store, has been slated for redevelopment as the science center’s new downtown home. The science center currently operates at Tanger Outlets.

Town officials have argued that the building remains vacant and blighted and is a critical piece of the broader town square redevelopment effort. The findings statement adopted Tuesday says the acquisition will serve a public purpose by removing blight and furthering the town’s economic redevelopment and revitalization plan.

The resolution says the property sits “directly on the Town Square” and forms the western border of the project. It states that the building has been in “blighted, deteriorating and substandard condition for over 20 years” and says the owner’s redevelopment plans have failed to move forward despite several years of ownership.

“It has become clear that the current owner’s lack of financial resources prevents its development of 111 East Main Street,” the findings state.

The resolution says the town previously authorized an appraisal and will make “every reasonable and expeditious effort” to justly compensate the owner, as required by state eminent domain law.

But residents opposed to the taking said before and during Tuesday’s meeting that the town has not identified a specific future use for the property, has not provided a cost estimate and has not adequately explained why condemnation is necessary.

A group of residents held a press conference outside Town Hall before the meeting, urging the board not to proceed.

“We are here because the future of a downtown anchor is on the verge of slipping away,” Riverhead resident Cindy Clifford said. “Today, the board will vote on taking the Long Island Science Center property, but no one will say what that could possibly cost taxpayers.”

Clifford said the town’s renewed threat of eminent domain has effectively frozen the science center’s ability to obtain funding.

“It seems the Long Island Science Center was set up to fail and is now being blamed for failing,” Clifford said.

Joan Cear of Jamesport said she views the town’s action as an arbitrary use of eminent domain and criticized what she called the board’s failure to identify a specific intended public use for the property.

“The town has not stated an intended use for this parcel that will provide a public benefit,” Cear said. “Our elected leaders owe it to the taxpayers to explain what is really planned for this parcel that makes it so important to downtown revitalization that they wish to condemn and seize it through eminent domain, and they should provide an estimate of what it could cost us.”

Larry Oxman, president of the Long Island Science Center board, said the threat of condemnation has created what he called a “cloud of condemnation” over the property.

“They haven’t taken it, but for all intents and purposes they have,” Oxman said. “It makes it impossible to finance, it makes it impossible to sell. That’s what happens, and that’s the position that we’re in.”

During the public comment period on resolutions, several speakers again pressed the board on cost, timing and the town’s intended use of the property.

Colin Tooker of Riverhead questioned how the town could vote to proceed without an appraisal in hand.

“It seems to me, outside of the legalities and the legal steps, you as the board are telling townspeople we’re going to cut a check that’s our money, and we don’t know what size that check is going to be,” Tooker said.

Town Attorney Erik Howard said the findings resolution determines whether the taking serves a proper municipal purpose. If the town proceeds, he said, the town must then determine just compensation, which requires an appraisal.

Merrifield, who offered the resolution, said many letters sent to the town were based on what she called a false belief that the science center currently operates at 111 E. Main St.

“It has never been that,” Merrifield said. “The Children’s Science Center is currently located in Tanger One.”

Merrifield said 111 E. Main St. has never served children or families and has remained vacant since the science center purchased it in 2019.

“It has simply always been, since it was purchased in 2019, a vacant, empty building that has never been opened for business,” Merrifield said. “It has always been a blight to Main Street.”

She said downtown revitalization has been a town goal for more than 30 years and said the town square project is too important to be stalled by the vacant building.

“The federal government and New York State have given Riverhead over $30 million to make this downtown revitalization happen,” Merrifield said. “It’s simply too important to just let this vacant, blighted building sit there and deter all those efforts.”

Merrifield said the owner would receive fair-market compensation and said the money would come from the town’s fund balance, not directly from taxpayers. She said the fund balance would be reimbursed when the property is sold.

She also said she would not support a hotel or apartment building on the site.

“What I want for this is to be an activation for the town, something that takes everybody from the aquarium, pulls you right through to our downtown, and revitalizes all of the businesses in downtown,” Merrifield said.

Rothwell also supported the taking, saying he had been excited years ago by the science center’s plans but saw little progress afterward.

“It kind of stopped there,” Rothwell said. “There’s just been no movement year after year, and the project has been downsized and downsized and downsized.”

Rothwell said he still wants the science center downtown, but said the town must act to fulfill its promise to revitalize Main Street.

“We have to move forward,” Rothwell said. “It does set us up to potentially promote the property and sell properties, so we have something that matches the downtown and truly revitalizes it.”

Halpin said he believes eminent domain should be used only as a last resort and said he did not believe the town had reached that point.

“It’s a legal tool that should only be used as an absolute last resort,” Halpin said. “My opinion is that we’re not at that absolute last resort.”

Halpin said he understands the frustration of board members who expected the science center project to be farther along, but said he was “not ready” to use eminent domain.

The resolution directs the town clerk to publish notice of the findings in two successive issues of the News-Review beginning June 11 and directs special counsel Frank Isler to serve certified copies on the property owner and any other parties with an interest in the property.