Vintage Square Group Unveils New Plans for Mixed Use Project

The Vintage Square Group, a Riverhead development firm that had previously proposed a mixed-housing and movie theater development near the courthouse on Railroad Avenue, returned with a bigger plan for downtown at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

The proposed plan includes "Vintage Square," a development with a multiplex, apartment and retail space, and a 750-car garage on Railroad Avenue near the courts, as well as "Vintage Village on the Peconic," a mixed-use space with more apartment space, restaurants and a village plaza across from the Suffolk Theatre on Main Street in downtown Riverhead.

"It's not just the Vintage Square project, but in addition to that it's an entire mixed-use complex for Main Street," said Vintage Square CEO John Burke.

Burke said the entire project would include 400 apartments across both locations downtown, and would cost about $140 million.

Burke said the new development was "not nearly the same thing" as the group's previous proposal. That project, called the "Village Square at Riverhead," was a smaller proposal for a 10-screen multiplex, stores, apartments and a parking garage on Railroad Avenue that would turn the area "into an intermodal transportation hub and destination attraction," according to a description on the old project's website.

The group received a sponsor designation for the Village Square at Riverhead, which is needed to buy town land in an urban renewal area, from the previous Town Board, according to a report from the Riverhead News-Review, but the current Town Board didn't renew the designation when it expired last year.

The project would need to acquire a parking lot and currently occupied space on Railroad Avenue, as well as vacant storefront south of East Main Street, the report said. The Vintage Group project is expected to create 750 jobs and may include investments from the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust, an investment firm that uses capital from labor unions across the country.

Town Supervisor Sean Walter said he received an invitation to the press conference, but was said he was too busy working on the town budget to attend. He added he knew nothing about the proposal.