Business

Here’s what a developer wants to build at a Wading River carnival site

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A five-building office complex has been proposed for six acres on the north side of Route 25A in Wading River on land that was rezoned a few years ago as part of Riverhead Town’s Route 25A Corridor Study.

The site is donated annually for a carnival that raises funds for Peconic Bay Medical Center.

The property is owned by Kenney Barra’s Knightland Inc., which is in the process of building a new retail complex — The Shoppes at East Wind — about a half mile east of the site, at the intersection of Route 25A and Sound Avenue.

Just east of that, Mr. Barra also owns the East Wind complex.

The new proposal, called Hamlet Professional Center, comprises five one-story buildings totaling 38,981 square feet. The structures will range in size from 6,317 square feet to 10,041 square feet.

There is a professional office complex immediately east of the undeveloped property, and it’s bordered on the west by Condzella Farms.

The property is one of the lots Riverhead Town rezoned at the culmination of its Wading River Route 25A Corridor Study. Mr. Barra and another property owner filed separate lawsuits challenging the rezoning and those lawsuits are still in court, according to Peter Danowski, the attorney for Mr. Barra. Mr. Danowski said the lawsuit will continue and they’ll watch how the approval process goes with the office complex proposal.

In 2002, Mr. Barra received town site plan approval for a 50-room country inn with a 100-seat restaurant on the six-acre site, but never built it. In October 2012, the Town Board changed the zoning from Business CR to a new category called Multi-Family Residential/Professional Office, a category that wouldn’t permit the country inn or the restaurant.

That zone was developed through the Corridor Study and the professional offices comply with this zoning, Mr. Danowski said.

“We think we meet every criteria and zoning code,” he said.

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