Dan's Papers - July 20, 2007 - Riverhead Mountain

What we commonly consider "The Gateway to The Hamptons," located just to the west of Riverhead, is on its way to becoming an extremely large fantasyland, a destination resort that will be akin to a family-oriented Las Vegas.

In the latest development in the case, two firms are in the middle of a bidding war to spend more than one hundred million dollars for 755 acres of land that is currently just scrub pine.

There is already a successful water park called Splish Splash in the area, a giant shopping outlet center called Tanger Mall and now, well, there may be a ski mountain and resort.

One of the requests by the Town of Riverhead, which owns much of this property, is that Riverhead Resorts LLC get approval from the Federal Aviation Agency. The proposed mountain will be 350 feet high.

There is also thinking that a gambling casino might be built in this area, run by and for the benefit of the Shinnecock Indians.

From about 1940 to 1990, all of this acreage was just flat scrubland surrounded by a chainlink fence with barbed wire on the top. Inside, the military supplier Grumman built fighter planes, jets, the moon lander and toward the end, canoes and busses and spy planes.

In 1990, however, Grumman got swallowed up by Northrop Aviation in California and the facility on eastern Long Island was abandoned. Before leaving, Grumman gave the merry-go-round carousel on the property that the 30,000 or so employees used on the picnic grounds there to Greenport. And they sold all the land to the Town of Riverhead for $1.

Now, Riverhead is on the move, with two suitors vying for 755 acres of this property -- about 1/5th of it -- looking to continue the parcel's legacy of fun and play.

One suitor, Riverhead Destination Group, which has bid $100 million, has said they will build something called the EPCAL Center. It would comprise a multiuse family resort, a 10,000-seat racetrack and driving course, a horseback riding facility and trails, time-share residences and multiuse condominiums.

Riverhead Resorts LLC, which just raised its bid from $100 million to $110 million, says it will build a large man made lake for water sports, an indoor ski mountain like the one they have in Dubai and condominiums and hotels.

Supervisor Cardinale, who a few years ago lamented the sad decline of Riverhead over the years, now faces an assortment of riches, each of which seems in some ways better than the others. Let them battle.

"We are confident that our project works economically, environmentally, and we believe it will work as to the lake and as to the FAA as to the zoning and square footage," said Morton Weber, of Riverhead Resorts Llc.