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Retail Building to Replace East Hampton Bowling Alley

A rendering of the building to be constructed on the Montauk Highway property that was once home to East Hampton Bowl.
A rendering of the building to be constructed on the Montauk Highway property that was once home to East Hampton Bowl.
McDonough & Conroy Architects
By
Christopher Walsh

A 9,982-square-foot, one-story retail building will rise in the place of East Hampton Bowl, which closed in 2013 and was demolished. On July 15, the East Hampton Village Design Review Board approved a site plan for the construction of the building, required parking, and such improvements as lighting and landscaping.

“I think the building we’ve designed that finally got approval with the D.R.B. is a great looking building,” Jeffrey Suchman, a New York-based real estate investor and developer who owns the property, at 71 Montauk Highway, said on Tuesday. “I think it’s going to be a real attribute to East Hampton.” A tenant has yet to be selected, he said.

The application had been before the review board for more than a year. After requested changes were made, members found the proposed design “far more compatible with the character of the surrounding development,” which includes commercial structures on its east and west sides and a residential district to its south. The coverage will be reduced from the bowling alley’s 80.6-percent to 74.6 percent, and its redevelopment will result in increased landscaping, the latter by Groundworks Landscaping of East Hampton.

The new building will be closer to Montauk Highway with most parking shifted behind it. A 31-foot-deep landscaped transitional yard will provide a buffer along the parcel’s rear, resulting in “a much more effective separation” between it and adjacent residences to the south, according to the determination.

The approval follows a March determination by the village’s zoning board of appeals, which approved a variance to allow 74.6-percent lot coverage. While the bowling alley was a pre-existing nonconforming structure, the zoning code limits coverage in a commercial district to 60 percent.

Eric Bregman, an attorney representing the applicant, had told the zoning board that the D.R.B. preferred a new building to the reuse of the old one because, except for lot coverage, “everything else is conforming.” The proposed building is to be one-third smaller than what existed, he said. “There are many plusses to allowing the applicant to do the building this size,” he said, “rather than keep the existing larger structure and renovate it in place with all of its attendant negatives.”

A fixture on Montauk Highway since 1959, the business had experienced unacceptable changes, Craig Patterson, who owned it for 36 years, said in 2013. While bowling as a family activity remained vibrant, participation in organized leagues had declined precipitously, he said. Last winter, the building’s roof partially collapsed under heavy snowfall. Soon after, the building was demolished.

 

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