WORK FINALLY SET TO BEGIN ON GREENPORT
HOTEL, ENTERTAINMENT COMPLEX


Mike McCagg
ccSCOOP News

08-19-11 - Contractors are ready to start work on a new proposed retail and entertainment center in Greenport.

Demolition of the former V&O Press building on Route 66 is expected to begin within “two or three weeks” said developer Harbalwant Singh. Once the demolition is complete, he said, work on phase one of the project will begin.

“We have already have completed the water sampling and Brownfield program required by (the state Department of Environmental Conservation) DEC. Now we are doing the cleanup and demolition work and that will be followed by phase one construction work,” said Singh.

The cleanup will include removal of asbestos and other pollutants identified in reports submitted to the town and DEC, including several heavy metals that are remnants of the site’s former use as a metal manufacturer.

Phase one construction work on the site calls for the building of an A&W restaurant and drive-thru, as well as a Mobil gas station and the retail unit and a liquor store. The A&W restaurant is a fast food establishment owned by the same company that produces A&W Root Beer.

Phase two construction of the site calls for the creation of a 100-room Comfort Suites Hotel that will include a restaurant and bar.

Other work planned for the Route 66 site include the construction of a two-story entertainment center that would include a bowling alley, an indoor play area, a climbing wall, a laser tag facility, and an arcade.

Singh said he hopes work will progress as quickly as possible.

“We have to be up by December 2013, but we hope to be up and running before that,” he said of the hotel phase of the project.

The project received approval from the town Planning Board in June of 2010, after a year of review. The process was lengthy because of, among other things, concerns raised about pollution on the former industrial site, which had been dormant for two decades.