Downsizing

Riverhead Mountain Theme Park may be more Like a Little Hill

By Dan Rattiner

Dan's Papers has learned that the big Riverhead Mountain ski resort, which is scheduled to move into construction next year and have its grand opening in 2012, may have to be scaled down because of the poor economic conditions.

"It's a big if," said our source, an insider in this situation. "At the present time, the project is full steam ahead. But if the downturn continues for a few more months, it might be necessary to go to Plan B."

Plan B is a whole lot smaller than Plan A.

Plan A was signed and approved by the Town of Riverhead in October of 2007 in a great ceremony at the Riverhead Town Hall. The developers, two giant European resort development firms, agreed to pay $155 million for a 755-acre parcel of vacant, open land currently covered with scrub pine. This was the abandoned military airport at the western edge of town, where Grumman Aerospace had its testing facility and where, when Grumman left the scene, they sold it to Riverhead for $1.

The sale of this property is expected to do wonders for the Town's fragile finances. Three million dollars was paid to the Town ar the signing of the contract, and $1 or $2 million will be paid each year to hold the place until all approvals were secured. (The project was held up for six months by the arrival of endangered hoot owls who grazed on the bushes there while passing through on their great migration south last fall.)

When completed in 2012, the project could cost in excess of $1 billion, provide jobs for thousands of lucky Town residents and bring a beautiful theme park almost the size of Disneyworld to the New York metropolitan area. The resort will be a glittering piece of development, and its signature 35-story tall mountain probably the highest structure on Long Island.

As Town Supervisor Phil Cardinale said, at the time of the sale, the land purchase alone would reduce the Town's debt to zero, leaving in its place a surplus of over $100 million.

And there would be further benefits. On an ongoing basis, the Town would get a percentage of the revenue generated forever into the future. In the first year alone, one million people are expected.

And the artificial ski mountain would be just the beginning. The mountain would abut an artificial lake of 350 acres, across which would chug water taxis taking tourists to their choice of five different resorts that would line the shores of the lake. The first would be the aforementioned ski mountain with a small Alpine Village next door where you could buy ski clothes and equipment, hot chocolate and souvenirs. The village's Main Street would also serve as the entrance to the resort, with booths set up to sell ticket packs to the happy families attending the place. The other theme resorts surrounding the lake would be a sports and lifestyle resort featuring indoor and outdoor tennis, basketball, soccer and baseball, a water park with flumes and waterfalls and pools, an equestrian resort with riding, show jumping, instruction and boarding of horses and finally a wilderness resort with nature trails, flora and fauna, yoga instruction, tai chi, gardens and fields. There would also be a convention center and lots of condominium apartments to be purchased.

In Plan B, everything is quite scaled down. The 35-story ski mountain would be much smaller. In fact, there wouldn't be a mountain at all. It would be too expensive. Instead, there would be numerous small portable tents, underneath which would be built small ski moguls - little mounds of ski-able snow each about eight feet high and 15 feet long.

"Moguling is almost as much fun as skiing down a mountain," my source said. "You ski up and over the mogul, then down the other side, then do the next and the next and the next. If you can get up enough steam, you can do a little leap on your skis when you get to the top of the mogul, and then when you hit the next one do it again."

He said the developers are considering a series of 10 moguls, one after the other.

"It really will be fun," he said again.

The Alpine Village is to be scrapped. Instead, visitors will be able to buy treats from either a hot dog wagon or an ice cream truck.

Hot dog stand to replace the Alpine Village

The lake, too, will be much smaller. It will be just 50 by 100 feet. "Fifty by a hundred is a whole lot bigger than it looks," our source said. "Also, there won't be water taxis. Instead, people who want to cross the lake can just wade across. It's only going to be two feet deep. And that's a good thing because there's much less possibility of drowning when it's only two feet deep, and the kiddies will love it. Although even in two feet, you can drown if you're not careful, or so they say."

The other four theme parks will be scaled down as well.

The equestrian resort will be a pony ride. The water park will be a fire hydrant that kids can turn on and off and spray water everywhere. The sports and lifestyle resort will consist of two ping-pong tables.

"One indoor and one outdoor, for when the weather is good," our source said.

The convention center will be the old hay barn that is currently on this property. "It is a historic barn," he said. "We would preserve it. And the meetings could take place whenever it is warm enough and there is no rain because of the holes in the roof. It will give conventioneers an adventure - you don't know if the convention is going to take place or not, and even if it does, it might be postponed or cancelled because of a rainstorm. Makes you think."

The bats in the barn, he said, will be removed.

The Wilderness resort will consist of an empty field alongside the barn where there are a lot of sticker bushes and wood ticks and things.

"We plan to leave it alone," our source said. "So it will be very environmental. People can walk around in it. And they can plant seeds in it."

A wide variety of seeds will be available for planting at the lemonade stand that will be set up alongside the field, he said.

Our source agreed that some people might be disappointed if what gets built is only Plan B rather than Plan A. But he said that times are tough and they gotta do what they gotta do. He also reiterated that it was only a contingency plan to be put into effect if things continue to get worse. And, as a matter of fact, it has never been formally drawn up, it was just talked about and magic markered onto a tablecloth at Athens Restaurant in Riverhead the other day.

"Probably they'll build the whole thing as originally planned," he said. "Or maybe, who knows, really."

When asked for comment, Cardinale fainted dead away.

A spokesman for the Shinnecock Indian Nation, which had been talking about possibly building a gambling casino adjacent to this project, said that if all they can do is have a craps game on a street corner there, it was not going to work out.

"We'd look elsewhere," he said.

Back to Contents