Government

New location for Wednesday’s ‘open house:’ Suffolk Theater

Riverhead Suffolk Theater
The Suffolk Theater on East Main Street. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch, file)

An ‘open house’ scheduled downtown for tomorrow night about the use of over $600,000 in grant funding has switched locations, from the space where the farmers market is held at 117 E. Main St. to the Suffolk Theater. 

The meeting, which will be led by Sustainable Long Island — a nonprofit that specializes in economic development — is open to the public and will be split into two separate time slots: 3 to 5 p.m., and 7 to 9 p.m.

Riverhead earned about $600,000 in a Brownfield Opportunity Area grant in 2011, which were given to 21 communities statewide in order to “revitalize communities, create jobs, support environmental remediation and expand the tax base in distressed neighborhoods that have been adversely affected by multiple brownfield sites.”

The Riverhead study area spans about 450 acres.

Attendees at Wednesday’s meeting will:

  • Hear results from the community survey
  • See the upcoming sidewalk improvements
  • Review preliminary concepts for potential revitalization of the Main Street/Route 25 Corridor
  • Understand existing obstacles to redevelopment of the corridor
  • Discuss strategies on how to successfully move forward

Planner Chick Voorhis, retained by the town to complete a study on how the town should spend some of its BOA dollars, suggested that the town lobby New York State to switch the classification of some parcels around the Peconic River to allow further development.

In addition, Mr. Voorhis shared the results of a survey his company conducted, asking over 800 people a series of questions about their thoughts on downtown Riverhead. Those results are expected to be shared at the March 26 meeting downtown.