With several projects in the works, here’s how downtown Riverhead development stands
How many more multi-story, mixed-use apartment projects are proposed for downtown Riverhead?
Aside from those already built or under construction, there are still at least four more apartment projects proposed in the downtown area.
• The biggest of them all is the Metro Group’s proposal to build 170 market-rate apartment units on the site of the former Sears store.
The lot has been cleared and was being used as a staging area for the construction of the Riverview Lofts apartments, which is immediately east of the Metro Group property. Metro Group borders on the west with East End Arts Council.
• Landmark at Riverhead calls for 45 units and a ground-level food hall. It’s also a market rate project and is located in the former West Marine building, which will be demolished.
• Suffolk Theater is proposing 28-apartments on floors two to five, of which 20 units will be studio apartments and eight will be one-bedroom apartments. The plans also call for a 59-foot, four-inch addition to the rear of the Theater that will include a green room, dressing rooms, and other facilities for performers on the first floor.
• The Zenith Building, located on McDermott Avenue, is proposed to become a four-story, 49-foot-tall mixed-use building on a 0.12-acre parcel currently occupied by a single-family house. It proposes to have nine market-rate apartments.
It would have retail uses on the ground level, nine apartments on floors two through four, consisting of six one-bedroom units and three two-bedroom units.
Among the 268 apartments completed or under construction are Summerwind (52 units); Woolworth (19 units), Peconic Crossing (45 units), Riverview Lofts (116 units), and 311 East Main Street (36 units).
The town’s zoning calls for a 500-unit cap on new apartments downtown, while the four pending proposals would pierce that cap. The town has heard calls for both eliminating the cap as well as calls to keep it. Councilman Frank Beyrodt said this issue will be addressed in the town’s comprehensive plan update.
