Here's an article from Long Island Business News from Sept 14th that features Steve's Pier 1 - http://www.libn.com/article.htm?articleID=39955


Here is the article from LIBN

Empty Promises

By David Winzelberg

Friday, September 14, 2007 - Long Island Business News

 
Businesses come and go, but the buildings they occupy remain, even when their tenants are swallowed by the mists of history.

Languishing amidst the commercial landscape, these abandoned monuments to failure can take years to attract new life, even though the properties would seem to be in prime locations. Once-popular spots creak and moan in the winds of neglect, blight otherwise busy or pristine landscapes, detract from communities across the Island.

A closer look at some of these infamous sites reveals why they’re still dark – and if they’ll ever come alive again.

Abandoned ship

Once a thriving, $3 million-a-year waterfront restaurant, Steve’s Pier 1 in Bayville boiled its last lobster in 2006. The ship-themed structure on Bayville Avenue, the village’s main street, has been dormant ever since.

The future of the seaside eatery is one of the hottest topics on Bayville blogs. Rumors run rampant. One scenario has the owners of the village’s newest amusement park turning Steve’s Pier 1 into an amusement annex, complete with giant water slide; another has the owners of a nearby restaurant moving in.

The real story, according to Bayville Mayor Victoria Siegel, is that the owner of Steve’s Pier 1, Joseph Genova, wanted to reopen the restaurant but couldn’t because of taxes he owed on the property. Siegel said Genova appeared at Village Hall recently to report that all back taxes had been paid, and to announce a “new corporate structure” called Pier 1 on the Sound LLC. Siegel said Genova expressed intentions to renovate and reopen the restaurant soon.

Genova said his plan is to renovate the restaurant “inside and out” and turn it into an upscale catering hall. He’s currently seeking investors to join him in the venture.

“It’s a specific type of investor I’m looking for,” Genova said. “My return doesn’t come back in 30 days. My return comes back in 24 months.”

As for Steve’s Pier 1’s demise, Genova blamed the economy. “Gas prices and other costs became enormous,” the restaurateur said, adding he used to pay about $2.50 per pound for lobster, the meal of choice for about 80 percent of his customers. “But now the boats have to pay more for gas, and add trucking the lobsters from Maine and Nova Scotia,” due to the scarcity of lobsters in local waters.

“I understand why the average cost went to $7 or $7.50 (per pound),” Genova said. “That makes the average lobster about $80. It’s hard to fill up a restaurant at that price.”

Moo-ving on

Considering the crapshoot that is the restaurant business, it’s no surprise that most of the abandoned properties on Long Island were once places to eat. Boarded up for many years, the Cow Harbor Inn in Northport is another dark spot – and a center of controversy among locals.

The once-bustling, New England-style eatery with the not-too-continental cuisine is now an overgrown Main Street garden of wooden signs trumpeting carnivals and garage sales. In the 1970s, the place was a Polynesian showplace called Bali Hai, complete with bamboo mugs and native dancers; the Cow Harbor Inn took over in the 80s and prospered – until competition from newer restaurants became insurmountable.

Instead of another restaurant incarnation, Commerce Bank has targeted the location for a local branch, one of several former restaurant sites Commerce is banking on. The Village of Northport has approved the architectural design for the bank branch and has granted the necessary variances; only the site plan is left to be approved.

That might be easier said than done. The original Cow Harbor Inn building includes a two-story house built around 1790, according to information from the Northport Historical Society, and some residents have expressed opposition to tearing it down.

“It’s at the intersection of five streets and is one of the entrances into the village, which is why the Village of Northport has been so protective of it,” said Garrett Gray, an attorney with Melville’s Weber Law Group, which represents Commerce. “Now it’s just dangerous. We’re going to turn it into a beautiful building.”

Mitch Pally, also an attorney with the Weber Law Group, said Commerce doesn’t necessarily look for abandoned properties, but if the location meets its branch criteria, it will go after a dark site.

Rocky roads

That’s what Commerce did on Route 25A in Rocky Point, where the bank is planning a branch inside a former Friendly’s restaurant shuttered seven years ago – one of 13 Long Island restaurants the chain closed in 2000.

Brookhaven Planning Commissioner David Woods said his department is in the middle of preparing a community visioning for the Rocky Point business district, and that identifying these types of properties is part of the process.

“This is one of the first steps of doing a downtown study,” Woods said. “You look at the existing conditions and what is abandoned and look at the opportunities that you have for redevelopment. You want to focus your development into your downtown hamlet centers.”

Abandoned properties aren’t always downtown, however. West of Rocky Point’s abandoned Friendly’s, also on Route 25A but out of the downtown area, is a Burger King that’s been cooked since 2003, when local franchisees pulled out. The overgrown, graffiti-covered eyesore has been targeted by Brookhaven for redevelopment, and is currently the subject of condemnation proceedings, according to court papers.

The property’s owner, Peter Petrakis of Glen Head, could not be reached for comment.

No rush

Experts cite several reasons why properties are abandoned, and right at the top is restrictive zoning. Genova could probably turn a sweet profit by turning his empty restaurant into waterfront condos, but the property is zoned for restaurant use only – and Bayville has expressed a desire to keep it that way.

When a prospective developer needs some kind of zoning change, the process slows to a crawl – especially on Long Island, according to Chris Damianos of the Smithtown-based Damianos Realty Group.

“It takes too long to get anything done here,” Damianos said. “The arduous process of getting approvals is one of the reasons that these properties sit for so long.”

Real estate brokers, of course, cite poor marketing as the biggest reason for inaction on certain properties. David Pennetta, vice president of commercial real estate firm Oxford & Simpson in Jericho, said many of these landlords try to sell their properties themselves, and “it really limits them.”

And sometimes, property owners are simply able to sit on their holdings, despite sizeable real estate taxes and other carrying charges. Property taxes for the Cow Harbor Inn, for instance, run about $16,500 annually.

“A landlord has to decide when it is right to sell,” Pally said. “It’s the same with people who own homes. They’re holding back because they believe the economy will come back to some degree and that the property will be worth more.”

Know of an abandoned commercial property? Tell us about it at david.winzelberg@libn.com and we’ll check it out for our next installment.