More apartments OK’d for downtown Riverhead

Another downtown apartment building has gotten the greenlight.

Last Tuesday, the Riverhead Town Board unanimously approved the Zenith Building, a site plan application for a four-story, 49-foot-tall mixed use building on 1/12 of an acre on McDermott Avenue. 

The site is currently occupied by a residential building. 

The project calls for nine, market-rate apartments on the top three floors and 2,096 square feet of ground floor commercial space, an entry lobby, elevator, utility room and trash collection space.

This is not the first time the Town Board has approved the Zenith Building. In February 2006, developer Ray Castronovo received site plan approval for a four-story mixed-use apartment complex. That project was never started, however, and in March 2009 Mr. Castronovo requested and was granted a 12-month extension. 

Once again, the project never got going — but it did receive two subsequent 12-month extensions from the Town Board. The approval resolution for the most recent — dated Feb. 22, 2010 — stated that “no further extension will be granted.” 

The approval last Tuesday will likely have no impact on the 500-unit limit the Town Board enacted in the 2003 master plan update, as that limit applies only to apartment units that have certificates of occupancy and are in the Downtown Center-zone. 

To date, five new apartment complexes in downtown Riverhead have received certificates of occupancy: Summerwind Square (52 units), the Woolworth building (19), Peconic Crossing (45), The Shipyard (36) and Riverview Lofts (116).

Several other proposed apartment projects have yet to obtain certificates of occupancy.