Town board delays selecting developer

[mikelbeck]

With new bids coming in almost every day from three firms competing to purchase 300 acres of undeveloped land at Calverton, Riverhead town officials have decided - for the third time - to put off a decision on selecting a final bidder for just a few more days.

http://www.newsday.com/search/ny-liriv065244121jun06,0,4978238.story

[thenative1]

Is that article reffering to the proposed land for motorsports/ family entertainment park or the first parcel of land that was being used for the industrial area. I think rechler has two parcels up for development. as well as downtown riverhead water front that he is developing.?:confused:


For Auto or Horse Enthusiasts
Spector Group for Rexcorp

BILLION-DOLLAR PLAN An entertainment and hotel project proposed in Calverton would have a water park, an equestrian center, auto racing tracks and a spa.


By VALERIE COTSALAS
Published: April 1, 2007

A NEW plan for one of the prime development sites in Suffolk County proposes a $1 billion entertainment and hotel project, as well as hundreds of residences that would use an innovative form of vacation-home ownership.

Scott Rechler, the Long Island commercial developer, is behind the proposed complex, which would develop a 755-acre site in Calverton in the town of Riverhead.

The proposal includes 688 residential “fractionally owned” units, meaning that each unit would have several different owners, who would schedule their time there through a management company. But unlike participants in a time share, these residents would actually share title to a home and be able to build equity.

The spine of the development, a former airstrip called Runway Boulevard, runs through the center of the complex and would connect five venues and parking lots, according to the proposal presented to the town in March. A light rail system would also transport visitors.

At one end of the boulevard, there would be a 20,000-seat raceway with two tracks: a three-quarter-mile track for a yearly Nascar small track event and a quarter-mile track for weekly local events, including demolition derbies. Around the larger raceway would be 100 high-end apartment-style condominiums.

The development also has a “motor sports country club” — a complex of town-house-style homes lining various parts of a winding track where visitors can race their own cars. It includes a country club with a spa and banquet hall and garages.

Farther west is a 500-stable equestrian center with show facilities and 150 acres of bridle paths, and more town houses.

A 650-room hotel and a conference center, with 400 rooms envisioned for families and 250 for business clients, combined with a downtownlike area with shops, restaurants, an indoor-outdoor water park, go-kart park, miniature golf, batting cages and an 15,000-seat amphitheater, would sit across the boulevard from the equestrian center.

For community use, there would be 100 acres of soccer, football and baseball fields and two indoor athletic areas for ice skating, minor league hockey and indoor soccer.

The Rexcorp proposal is in the earliest stage. Town officials want more information about how the fractional ownership would work and how the developer would handle increased traffic, according to Phil Cardinale, the Riverhead town supervisor. Before any building can begin (the developer estimates it would take four or five years to complete), the project needs zoning board approvals and a state environmental impact study.

The proposal is similar in concept to several that have emerged across Long Island in recent years, and to combinations that are starting to be built in other parts of the nation. “If you look around the country,” Mr. Rechler said, “in Baltimore or Las Vegas, the recent trend on how to do a good mixed-use development is mixing in sports, entertainment, lifestyle, retail and hotel.”

Mr. Rechler’s firm, Rexcorp Realty, is a partner, with Charles B. Wang , the Long Island businessman and owner of the New York Islanders hockey team, in redeveloping the 77-acre Nassau Coliseum site in Uniondale, with a similar sports-based mixed-use development.

Each of the 688 homes in the Calverton development would be “fractionally owned” by several different people, according to Matthew Frank, a project manager at Rexcorp.

No owners would live permanently in the units, but they would share a title to the property, Mr. Frank said.

He said the approach would be similar to that of Ritz-Carlton, whose fractional ownership arm has four such developments completed and five under construction in places like Aspen, Miami and St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, marketed to a very wealthy clientele.

Those developments offer as many as 12 shares in a unit, with hotel-like services so that owners feel as if they’re staying at a personal vacation home up to four times a year, totaling 21 days. The units come with a hefty monthly maintenance fee that also covers the use of storage units, so Aspen owners, for example, can have their ski equipment, photos and children’s toys moved into the unit before they arrive.

Owners can sell units using the management company as a broker, for a fee, or on their own. Prices for shares in a Ritz-Carlton development run from about $146,000 to $840,000, according to the Ritz-Carlton Club.
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Published: April 1, 2007

(Page 2 of 2)

But while Ritz-Carlton serves well-established resort areas, Mr. Frank said the Riverhead development would be creating a destination for “people who are motor sport or equestrian enthusiasts.” In the motor sports country club complex, for example, owners “would bring their Porsche here and race it on the road track under controlled conditions.”

Residential homes have long been a sticking point in developing the property, formerly an industrial site, which has been vacant since 1998.

The town wants any development on the land to bring in tax revenue and jobs, but to avoid burdening local schools and infrastructure with permanent residents. Developers, on the other hand, say the site needs some form of housing to be profitable.

The United States Navy was the long-term owner of the land and leased it to the aircraft manufacturer Northrop Grumman for 40 years. But after the company shut down its production there, the Navy turned the land over to the town, suggesting that it could be used to create an economic engine for the region, according to Ed Densieski, a Riverhead town councilman, who is fervently against having housing on the site.

Next to the 755 acres, an industrial corridor is planned on 400 acres, and beyond that, commercial development and light industrial uses are already under way on 500 acres bought by the developer Jan Burman.

The site Mr. Rechler proposes to develop is zoned for recreational use and open space, a designation that can include residential homes only if they are clustered around a recreational attraction, like a golf course.

Past proposals include golf-course developments with homes around the course, and hotel and conference centers, and a 50-story-high ski park.

Rexcorp has not yet approached a hotel operator, according to Mr. Frank, but he said the sports and entertainment venues would provide demand for hotel rooms.

In his attempt to win over the Riverhead Town Council, which has been jaded by the failure of past plans for the Calverton site, Mr. Rechler has joined with partners known in the Riverhead area for successfully completing projects.

Long Island Destination Group, owned by Jim Petrocelli, who built the Marine World Aquarium on Main Street, is the builder; Spector Group, architects who are also partners in a major downtown Riverhead waterfront revitalization project, will design the development.

The Town Council has seen enough plans fall through to be wary of being overly excited about developers’ initial presentations, Mr. Cardinale said. “But I would say this is the most complete proposal the town has seen,” he acknowledged.

Even Mr. Densieski, the town councilman who opposes all residential development, allows that the Rechler proposal, with the fractional ownership units, is “the best proposal we’ve had so far.”

[Whitetrashhero]

Beechwood is in the lead for the development

[thenative1]

Where are you getting this misinformation from?:rolleyes


Even Mr. Densieski, the town councilman who opposes all residential development, allows that the Rechler proposal, with the fractional ownership units, is “the best proposal we’ve had so far.”

[Supershafts]

As of right now there dealing with the INDUSTRIAL side of calverton, there isn't anything going on for the entertainment side until they have reached a decision for the industrial side

The entertainment side won't be looked at any further then it was when they made the original proposal, they are trying to get the industrial side all squared away, then they'll move to the entertainment side.

wth...beechwood is only trying for the industrial side...

Your gonna get yourself banned over here too...or atleast work real hard at it

[Chevychick]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-licalv0612,0,4864784.story?coll=ny-top-headlines

Just saw this in newsday thought you guys would be interested.