Demolition of long-vacant former restaurant put on hold; owner allowed 30 days for decision on its fate

After hearing testimony for two hours about conditions of the former restaurant at the corner of Griffing and Railroad avenues in Riverhead, the town board yesterday agreed to allow the property owner 30 days to decide whether he can repair and restore it or must tear it down.

Riverhead Fire Marshal Craig Zitek and town engineer Ken Testa both testified at length about the 125-year-old building’s structural deficiencies, mostly a result of water intrusion.

The long-vacant building is in danger of total collapse, Testa told the board.

Zitek and Testa presented photographs of the interior of the structure, taken during their June 7 inspection, which depict extensive water damage, rotting support beams and rafters, crumbling foundation walls, a collapsed ceiling, and a missing section of roof — as well as evidence that squatters had been living there.

Lyle Pike, a principal in the company that owns the building, complained that he has not been able to gain access to the property for four years due to padlocks and chains placed on the doors by the town.

During a 15-minute recess in the proceedings, Pike met with Supervisor Sean Walter and deputy town attorney Dan McCormick and agreed to make a decision by Dec. 7 about whether to raze the building or restore it and, if he chose to restore it, to submit fully-engineered plans to the town by Jan. 7.

The town has been working to get the owner to repair or raze the structure for some time, according to officials.

“We were trying to work with the guy,” Supervisor Sean Walter told RiverheadLOCAL in November 2014, when, after issuing notices of town code violations to the owner, Riverhead first put Pike on notice of unsafe conditions at the site and the town’s intent to demolish the building if the conditions were not remedied. Walter said a prospective buyer had attempted to purchase the property, but Pike “wanted too much money for it and wouldn’t budge.”

Zitek and Testa inspected the building in June and the town attorney issued a second unsafe structure in July.

Before the town can take any action to remedy an alleged unsafe structure, the town board must rule that the structure is unsafe following a formal evidentiary hearing. That hearing opened yesterday. It was kept open pending fulfillment of the settlement agreement.

If the owner fails to comply with yesterday’s stipulation, the hearing will be reopened and concluded, and the town will move ahead with the demolition.

Landmarks preservation commission chairman Richard Wines told the board the “architecturally significant” building is “somewhat older than the town’s records indicate” and is considered a historic resource.

“We think it was built by William Fisher,” Wines said. Fisher was a weaver who was a friend colleague and fellow immigrant with mill owner Henry Perkins, he said. “He used a process called jacquard looms, which is basically the predecessor of the IBM punch cards,” Wines said. “His products can be found in museums all around Long Island, including Hallockville and there are books about his works,” he said.

Wines told the board and Pike that the building is “most likely eligible to be listed on the National Register of Hstoric Places,” which would make the owner eligible for 20-percent federal and state tax credits for money spent on the restoration.

Listing on the register would not impede demoiltion should that prove necessary, Wines said. He reminded the board that since the building is in a Riverhead historic district, the process for approval of demolition should include consultation with the landmarks preservation commission.