Ambulnz NY, a division of DocGo and provider of mobile medical services and medical transportation, leased a 10,200-square-foot industrial building on .42 acres at 96 Commercial St. in Freeport. Avi Garma of MAG Realty Associates represented the tenant, while Mario Asaro and Dillan Morris-Timoney of Industry One Realty represented the landlord, Ferrucci Real Estate LLC, in the lease transaction.
Ruggerio Properties purchased the two-story, 10,734-square-foot mixed-use building on .36 acres at 150 Main St. in Huntington for $1.5 million. The building has five apartments over the ground-floor office space. The buyer plans to renovate the property. The property occupies the site of Huntington’s first church built in 1665. After a new church was built further east on Main Street in 1715, the first church building was sold in 1717 for 5.1 pounds or a little less than $7 U.S., according to the Historical Marker Database. Frank Mannino of Berkshire Hathaway Commercial Services represented the buyer, while his Berkshire Hathaway Commercial Services colleague Steven Bootz represented the sellers, Dr. Harold German and June German, in the sales transaction.
Yorkshire Food Sales Corp., a distributor of snack products, leased 33,325 square feet of industrial space at 999 South Oyster Bay Road in Bethpage. The New Hyde Park-based company, which dates back to the 1940s, distributes snack products of several major manufacturers, including Wise, Archway, Deep River, Trophy Nut and many others. Jason Miller and Jeffrey Schwartzberg of Premier Commercial Real Estate represented the tenant, as well as the landlord, Nassau Steel LLC, in the lease transaction.
Gemini Pharmaceuticals Inc. leased a 30,444-square-foot industrial building on 1.64 acres at 81 Modular Drive in Commack. Gemini, which is expanding its operations, has its corporate headquarters next door at 87 Modular Drive. The company also has locations at 65 Mall Drive in Commack and at 55 Adams Ave. in Hauppauge. Gemini, a 43-year-old family-owned manufacturer of over-the-counter pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and animal health products, recently received economic incentives from the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency for $13.9 million in infrastructure improvements and upgrades to expand its operations. Richard Cohen of Ashlind Properties represented Gemini, while Jason Miller and Jeffrey Schwartzberg of Premier Commercial Real Estate represented the landlord, BP81 Enterprises LLC, in the lease transaction.
Spanos Painting Corp., a commercial painting company, leased 4,000 square feet of industrial space at 901 S. Second St. in Ronkonkoma. The company is relocating from Holbrook. Michael Zere of Zere Real Estate Services represented the tenant, as well as the landlord, 901 LLC, in the lease transaction.
After more than 46 years in the making, the Matinecock Court affordable housing development in East Northport will welcome its first residents in just a couple of weeks.
LIBN has learned that developers expect to receive certificates of occupancy for about half of the buildings at the limited-equity cooperative complex and other necessary final approvals by the end of the month.
A kitchen in one of Matinecock Court’s 146 homes. / Photo by David Winzelberg
The $97 million development, located on 14.5 acres on the northwest corner of Elwood Road and Pulaski Road, brings 146 residences in 17 two-story residential buildings consisting of 18 one-bedroom units, 89 two-bedroom units, 38 three-bedroom units and a two-bedroom unit for the superintendent. Eight of the units are reserved for individuals with developmental disabilities and five are set aside for veterans. The project includes a 2,500-square-foot community building with a fitness center, administrative offices and meeting areas for residents. It also has its own sewage treatment plant.
Monthly maintenance fees at Matinecock Court range from $1,300 to $2,100, depending on the size of the unit. Prospective residents have to meet income requirements that restrict ownership in the gated community to households earning between $47,000 and $95,000 a year.
“We held a lottery a couple of months ago and received over 1,000 applications for 146 units,” Peter Florey, a principal of Levittown-based D&F Development Group, which partnered with Greenlawn-based nonprofitHousing Help on the East Northport project, told LIBN.
First residents are expected to move into Matinecock Court early next month. / Photo by David Winzelberg
Florey added that he expects the first move-ins at Matinecock Court in the first week of September, and once final approvals are granted for the rest of the buildings, all residents should be in by November.
“We’re confident that we have enough people for full occupancy, with a substantial waiting list,” he said. “It will likely be a 45-day process to get everyone in.”
First pitched in 1978, the East Northport development has survived multiple court challenges, one of which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, as the Town of Huntington and local residents tried in vain to derail it. The project, advanced by Housing Help, was stalled under other developers until D&F was tapped in Jan. 2021 to see it through.
“Matinecock Court represents more than just new housing, it’s the result of decades of persistence, advocacy, and community partnership to ensure that affordable housing is a reality on Long Island,” said Pilar Moya-Mancera, executive director of Housing Help. “We are grateful to D&F Development for helping bring this vision to life. When the lottery for its 146 apartments opened this summer, we received 1,000 applications—85.7% from Long Island and 32.1% from the Town of Huntington—proving the need is overwhelmingly local. Matinecock Court is not the finish line. It must be a blueprint for future projects, so we don’t wait another 45 years to meet our community’s housing needs.”
Housing advocates have hailed the opening of the project.
“We commend Housing Help and D&F Development for their perseverance in bringing Matinecock Court to the finish line,” Roger Weaving, president of the Huntington Township Housing Coalition, said in a written statement. “This attractive development stands as an excellent illustration of contemporary affordable housing.”
Weaving added that affordable housing opportunities like Matinecock Court can help stem the exodus of people leaving Long Island, and much more is needed.
“The few units of housing being created on Long Island today are overwhelmingly single-family homes, but this doesn’t meet the needs of smaller households,” he said. “When people can’t afford housing, they leave town and look for opportunities elsewhere.”
Matinecock Court is not the first limited-equity cooperative complex that D&F, headed by Florey and Leonard D’Amico, has developed. In 2017, D&F completed Long Island’s first limited-equity housing co-op called Highland Green in Melville. The $34 million project created a two-story, income-restricted, 117-townhouse community on an 8-acre site once occupied by a commercial nursery on Ruland Road. Purchasers bought into the co-ops for low down payments – from $1,880 to $2,600 – and part of their $940 to $1,300 monthly maintenance charges builds equity in the complex while helping to pay down a tax-exempt bond used to finance its construction.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — William Kenneth “Kenney” Grant, the founder and owner of the iconic West Virginia chain Gino’s Pizza and Spaghetti House, has died. He was 94.
A native of Huntington, Grant founded Gino’s in 1961. He gradually expanded the business, which currently has around 40 locations around West Virginia. Grant also owned several locations of another West Virginia staple, Tudor’s Biscuit World.
Grant remained committed to supporting the Huntington community throughout his life, including the Marshall Artist Series, the arts and entertainment organization for Marshall University.
“Kenney was a visionary, he was not one to be satisfied with being just another pizza place, he always wanted more for his hometown and tried to bring that to them,” the obituary said. “In his attempt to become a successful businessman, Kenney never failed to forget his roots.”
He is survived by three children, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Police said Rambudhan was traveling northbound on North Kings Highway on a 2023 Acura MDX when it left the roadway and hit Lucius Gaskins, 54, of Alexandria, when he was on the sidewalk. Gaskins died at the scene.
Rambudhan is currently being held without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.
Authorities believe that alcohol and speed factored into the crash, which they’re still investigating.
Those with information is asked to call the Fairfax County Police Department’s Crash Reconstruction Unit at 703-280-0543 or submit a tip at 1-866-411-8477.
WTOP’s Nia Dumas contributed to this story.
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Huntington Bancshares joined mega-banks in growing digital adoption during the first quarter, citing increases in digital and mobile usership and in digital logins. During the quarter, Bank of America, Citizens Financial Group, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo all reported digital usership growth. The $189 billion bank’s investment in technology and data in the quarter contributed […]
Huntington Bancshares Chief Technology and Operations Officer Paul Heller is set to retire March 1. Heller has built the technology operations throughout the $187 billion, Columbus, Ohio-based bank since 2012, according to a Jan. 10 bank release. As Heller retires, the bank’s executive team is getting an overhaul. On March 1, the bank will make […]
Huntington Bancshares remained steadfast in its commitment to control expenses during the third quarter, allowing it to maximize efficiency. “This focus on sustained efficiencies — including Operation Accelerate business process, offshoring and the other actions — will yield multiyear benefits,” Chief Financial Officer Zach Wasserman said during today’s earnings call. “These actions are necessary to […]
It’s hard to say what’s cooler about the Japanese shōya house at the Huntington Library, Art Gallery and Botanical Gardens — the centuries-old wood structure that was once the center of a small farming village in Marugame, Japan, or the backstory of how it got to its new home at the Huntington’s Japanese Garden.
The shōya house’s original conical ceramic roof tiles had to be broken to move the structure. They were recreated by Japanese craftspeople, complete with a sprouting seed design.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
The journey took nearly eight years of negotiations, bureaucratic wrangling and skilled craftsmanship to dismantle, reassemble and, in some cases, re-create the 3,000-square-foot house and gardens. And starting Saturday, visitors can finally tour the compound, which will be open daily from noon to 4 p.m. (except Tuesdays, when the gardens are closed).
Los Angeles-based Akira and Yohko Yokoi donated their ancient family home to the Huntington, but the $10 million job of moving it to San Marino was far more complicated than just taking apart a puzzle and putting it back together.
Consider the distinctive conical ceramic tiles covering the pitched roof like rows of tight curls. All those silver-gray tiles had to be remade by Japanese craftsmen because the originals were mortared to the roof and had to be broken to disassemble the house. The exquisite garden outside the largest and most important room of the house was carefully mapped and measured, and every stone numbered by landscape designer Takuhiro Yamada so it could be re-created at the Huntington.
Akira and Yohko Yokoi outside the shōya house they donated to the Huntington.
(Sarah M. Golonka / The Huntington)
And outside the gatehouse that protected the house, built new because the original was damaged by a storm, the Huntington installed a terraced mini farm growing small plots of rice, buckwheat, sesame, wheat and other traditional Japanese crops, surrounded by a riot of colorful cosmos flowers. The house sits higher than the farmland, so water collected from the roof and ponds all drains down to irrigate the farm land.
So this installation isn’t just an exercise in cultural awareness, says curator Robert Hori, the Huntington’s associate director of cultural programs, who oversaw the project from start to finish. To him, the Japanese Heritage Shōya House is a quiet but effective example of sustainability — “learning from the past for a better future” — and a reminder that farmers “are really the backbone of our society.”
Robert Hori, the associate director of cultural programs at the Huntington, is framed by tall cosmos blooms in the farm area outside the shōya’s gatehouse.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Small terraced plots of farmland grow rice, sesame, wheat, buckwheat and other traditional Japanese crops outside the shōya house.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
There were plenty of trying times — more than two years of negotiating with city, state and federal officials to get the necessary approvals and occupancy permit to move and rebuild the house. And in the midst of the pandemic, when the disassembled house sat in dozens of packing crates for nearly nine months, Hori had to coax reluctant Japanese craftspeople to come and put it together so the ancient wood pieces didn’t warp in SoCal’s dry summer heat.
“When you’ve spent two years lovingly repairing this wood and then you’re told everything might be lost, that was a call to action to the craftspeople who painstakingly worked on this,” says Hori. “Even in the face of a pretty scary time, they felt like it was their responsibility to put this house back together.”
The project started with a chance meeting in 2016 during a party at the Beverly Hills home of Los Angeles philanthropist Jacqueline Avant. Hori had come to talk with Avant about a Japanese art collection she wanted to donate to the institution. During their conversation, Avant introduced Hori to her friend, Yohko Yokoi, who soon would be traveling to Japan.
“I said, ‘Oh, that will be a wonderful visit because the cherry blossoms will be in full bloom,’” Hori recalled, “and [Yokoi] said, ‘No, because I have to take care of my house.’ And then she began to tell me the story of this house.”
The front entrance for farmers and other common folk at the shōya house. The swept-dirt courtyard was for village events. Dignitaries entered through a special gate at the left.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Hori recalls Yokoi saying the house had been built after the war, “so I thought it was a prefab house from the 1950s with poor construction, built after World War II. But then she was saying, ‘We used to have a castle,’ and that’s when it came to light that this house was built around 1700, after the war that unified Japan.”
Prior to that final battle, Japan had been a confederation of warring city-states and provinces, he said. It took 100 years of battles to create a cohesive central government known as the Tokugawa Shogunate. The Yokoi family’s castle was destroyed during the war. They had been fighting on the losing side, says Hori said, but the victorious Tokugawa clan decided to incorporate all the losing factions into its new bureaucracy, to become tax collectors and shōya, or village leaders.
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The Yokoi shōya house was built around 1700 in Marugame, says Hori, and was the family’s private residence as well as a kind of community center for the village.
Inside the gatehouse, a large courtyard provided space for weddings, funerals and celebrations. Farmers and merchants entered the shōya house through one entrance, to measure and store their rice, pay their taxes and try to collect funds for other provisions. These rooms had floors made from hard-packed earth, and rustic beams hand-hewn from pine.
Adjacent to the dirt-floored rooms were the places where the family lived and worked. These raised floors were covered with rice-straw tatami mats. The wood-framed walls and beams were planed to feel as soft to the touch as satin sheets. Sliding walls with windows covered in rice paper and glass opened to reveal exquisite gardens, enjoyed only by visiting dignitaries who entered through their own special gate.
The exquisite Japanese garden of distinctive stones, pond, trees and shrubs outside the shōya’s grand room for dignitaries.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
After the military shogunate system was overturned in the late 19th century, the house became the Yokois’ private residence and went through several renovations, according to Yokoi and her husband, Akira. The last family member to live there was Akira’s mother, who died around 1988. The couple moved to California in the late 1960s, says Hori, where Akira worked as an executive for Matsushita Panasonic, the parent company of Panasonic. They visited the house regularly and kept it maintained, with the idea of retiring there someday.That plan faded, however, and eventually, he adds, the upkeep became a chore.
Hori already was thinking about a big project for the Japanese Gardens when he first met Yohko Yokoi. The Huntington’s Chinese Garden was in the midst of a huge expansion, and the discussion was how to add to the Japanese Garden to balance the two, says Hori. “This was an ongoing conversation we’d been having [at the Huntington] since 2012, and I’d been taking several trips to Japan to figure out what we should be adding next to that garden,” he says.
The Yokoi house sounded promising, so even though he had just returned from a visit to Japan, he made another trip within a few weeks so he could see the house while Yokoi was visiting. And that’s when he got the vision that sustained him through all the difficult years to come.
“I thought it had good bones when I first went to look at it, but also, I was interested in the house because it was really a conglomerate of various styles: the front room with its very rustic wood beams and style on one side, and then on the other side a formal reception room with the elegant carvings and mix of styles; a public face and private face of a scale big enough to accommodate visitors circulating through it.”
There were other signs too. The Huntington’s historic Japanese Garden, with its curved wooden Moon Bridge over a small lake and display of a Japanese home, first opened in 1912 when the West was fascinated by Japanese culture, plants and architecture. The garden fell into disrepair during World War II but was refurbished with support from the San Marino League. In 1968, the garden was expanded with a bonsai collection and Zen Court of plants and raked stones. Then in 2010, the Pasadena Buddhist Temple donated a small ceremonial tea house to the garden, which was disassembled and sent back to Japan to be refurbished before being shipped back to San Marino, where it was reassembled.
Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii) rises above the shōya house gatehouse.An intricate carving of farm life at the top of the entrance to the shōya house’s grand room.A soft wood walk way surrounds the perimeter of the shōya house.(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
The tea house was much smaller than the shōya house, says Nicole Cavender, director of the Huntington’s botanical gardens, but it gave them the confidence to tackle a much larger structure and create a reconstruction of village life.
“We wanted this to be an immersive experience,” says Cavender, “so it has to be productive as well as beautiful.” The fields of tall magenta, pink and white cosmos flowers that edge the farm weren’t added just to enchant, she said, “but to show that we’re actually trying to grow something. The flowers draw pollinators who help the crops grow.”
Eventually there will be koi in the garden pond by the house, and the water circulating in that pond will be enriched with their poop, she says, and help feed the farmland below. Around the house is decorative edging called rain catchers — narrow drains filled with smooth gray rocks to collect any rain or dew falling off the roof, which also drained to the farming areas below.
Three hundred years ago, the Japanese didn’t have a word for sustainability, but they lived the concept every day with this type of regenerative farming, says Hori. “It’s how you survived. We want people to understand that ornamental gardening started with the ability to move water, and to move earth, which is what we have in farming. It all came out of farming.”
Robert Hori paces in the shōya’s largest room, reserved for dignitaries. The walls slide open on both sides to reveal the garden.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Hori’s vision encompasses more nuanced lessons too. The house has few furnishings. The smooth wood decking around the perimeter of the house is patched in places where the wood was worn, but the patches were done decoratively in the shape of a small gourd. And the simplicity of the furnishings is a gentle question.
“It gets you thinking … do we really need all this stuff we have? We want this to be a living museum, and walking through the house you can really find the three Rs of sustainability — reduce, repair and recycle, reuse or remake,” says Hori.
“It was all part of a circular economy where nothing was wasted. A ‘circular economy’ is a big concept, but we’re hoping these small doses of a big concept can help people take away these lessons and understand them. As a nonprofit we are in the business of inspiring and changing lives. We can make a difference, and that’s a great thing to come to work to.”
Huntington Auto Finance is leaning on digital channels to speed funding and improve consumer experiences. More than half of Huntington auto loan originations are completed through e-contracting, Rich Porrello, president of auto finance and dealer services at the bank, told Auto Finance News, a sister publication to Bank Automation News. “We’ve made [e-contracting] a priority because it’s a better experience […]
Huntington Bancshares continued its Operation Accelerate initiative to increase efficiency in the second quarter of 2023 as the bank posted a solid quarter amid economic uncertainty. The $188 billion bank’s initiative, announced in February, involves examining the customer experience, from prospecting to servicing, to find opportunities to automate and simplify processes. “We’ve developed and executed […]
Huntington Bancshares continued its efficiencies push during the first quarter, saying it plans to keep expenses at a 1% to 3% increase over each quarter to offset upcoming economic uncertainty. THE BIGGER PICTURE: The $189 billion bank’s noninterest expenses increased 3% year over year to $1 billion, according to the bank’s earnings supplement. Huntington has […]
As everyone knows, disputes between neighbors can be brutal. But when tens of millions of dollars in development are at stake, the fight becomes next-level.
That’s what is happening in Huntington right now, as neighboring property owners scrap over their plans to build rival condominium projects.
Earlier this month, the town board approved a plan pitched by Oheka Castle owner Gary Melius to build a 95-unit condo building on a portion of the castle’s 22-acre property.
The approval came over the vehement objections of attorneys for Oheka’s neighbor the Cold Spring Country Club, which is in contract with a developer to sell 13 acres of its 168-acre property for a separate 175-unit condo project, to be built just a chip shot away from the Oheka condo building.
As with any neighbor dust up, this one has a lot of history. Melius had previously offered to buy the club’s 13 acres and add it to about 5 acres of Oheka property so developers could build 190 condos on the combined site.
In fact, the Town of Huntington had approved the 190-unit plan in 2012, but the project, which was first to be developed by Gale International and then later by another development firm, FBE Limited, never materialized.
On the latter plan, Melius claims Manhattan-based FBE, which is now in contract to buy the club’s 13-acre development site, eventually cut him out of the project.
“I spent 10 months with FBE to buy my deal,” Melius told LIBN. “I gave them nine changes to the contract, and I said that’s enough of that. Then they went over to the club and bought their land because they knew I couldn’t do it without their land.”
In response, Melius took FBE and the club to court in 2021 for breach of contract, and though some of the claims in the lawsuit were dismissed, the case remains pending. Meanwhile, Melius sought and received town approval for his own plan to develop a four-story, 95-unit condo building on a portion of Oheka’s property, however, the approval was conditional on the condo development being able to use East Gate Drive and a connecting spur that’s owned by the club, which club officials say they won’t allow.
The road spur that connects with East Gate Drive was actually purchased by the club in 2009, in preparation for the previously contemplated sale of its 13-acre development site to Melius. And attorneys for the club plan to soon file an Article-78 lawsuit challenging the town’s approval of the Oheka project.
ROAD RAGE: The country club’s road spur that connects East Gate Drive with the castle is a major sticking point in the condo dispute. Photo by Judy Walker
“One of the major issues is obviously access to this proposed development over the club’s property, to which Oheka has no legal right,” said attorney Howard Avrutine of Merrick-based law firm Avrutine & Associates, who represents the club. “That is something we believe the town should have made sure was addressed upfront before it rendered any decision.”
Both Melius and his attorney Michael McCarthy argue that the club doesn’t need to grant access to East Gate Drive and the connecting spur because it has been historically used by people coming to Oheka.
“East Gate Drive has been open and used by the general public from the time that Otto Kahn first built the castle, that’s the story on Oheka’s side,” McCarthy said.
But Avrutine counters that Oheka’s use of the road is limited.
“Under a theory of prescriptive easement, you have the rights that you acquired based upon the historic usage. You don’t have rights to do anything you want,” Avrutine said. “Since historically, there’s never been a 95-unit condominium development there, how could it be possible to argue that Oheka has the right of access to it based on historical usage? You can’t. That’s really the centerpiece of the reason why they simply cannot use it.”
In addition, attorney Anthony Guardino of Uniondale-based Farrell Fritz, who represents developer FBE, said in granting Oheka approval for the condo project, the town ignored the expressed restriction in the Historic Overlay District zoning it used to justify the project’s requested density.
“It’s an overlay district and the regulations specifically say you must apply the height, area and bulk requirements of the underlying zone,” Guardino says. “On the 5 acres, it allows one unit per acre and on the remainder, that has a density of two units per acre. The math never adds up to 95.”
On the club property, FBE has proposed to develop a two-building condo complex on about 13 acres of mostly wooded area just west of East Gate Drive and north of Colonial Drive, across from the Cold Spring clubhouse. The 175-unit condo project, which would be developed under the town’s Residential Open Space Cluster zoning, will have an on-site wastewater pump station that would be connected to the nearby Nassau County sewer system. The Oheka project will be building its own sewage treatment plant to serve its condos.
View from Cold Spring’s 17th hole with part of the wooded 13-acre proposed development site behind it. Photo by Judy Walker
When it comes down to it, both Melius and the club have similar goals, which is to generate revenue to ensure the future success of the castle and the country club. Doug Solow, Cold Spring’s president, says the money from the sale of its development site will allow for much-needed capital improvements for the 260-member club that was incorporated in 1949.
“We’re in this for the long-term preservation of our club, for our membership, for the community, and we have absolutely no ill will at all towards Gary or the castle,” Solow said. “Because it’s in our best interest as well as the community’s to have the castle succeed because our golf course is constructed around it.”
Huntington Supervisor Ed Smyth called the town’s approval of the Oheka project “a lifeline” to the historic property. There will be an upfront $2 million payment put into a fund that will go towards maintenance of the castle in addition to 15 percent of each condo owner’s annual dues.
For Melius, the condo project could help Oheka climb out of its deep financial hole. The property is once again facing foreclosure, after a summary judgment ruling for Oheka’s lender last month by Judge Elizabeth H. Emerson in Suffolk County Supreme Court.
More than a decade ago, Melius defaulted on a $28 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan, the debt of which has since ballooned to about $40 million with interest and advances, according to attorney David Rosenberg of Garden City-based Rosenberg Fortuna & Laitman, who is the court-appointed referee in the case. In the coming weeks, Rosenberg will schedule a hearing to determine the amount actually due to the lender U.S. Bank National Association, which will pave the way for the court to issue a judgment of foreclosure and direct a sale of the Oheka property.
However, the original lender may not be the entity that ultimately takes over the property. After a sale of the Oheka note found no takers last October, the loan is once again up for sale next week, and this time, it becomes a little more attractive because of the property’s valuable condo project approval. Melius says he will bid on the note in an attempt to buy it at a discount, but if that doesn’t work, he still doesn’t plan on surrendering Oheka to foreclosure anytime soon.
“I held them up for seven years. Now they got a victory in court, but I’ve made a motion to re-argue so that’s going to take a while,” Melius said. “Then, my next move is, I will go through Chapter 11, and they’ll take three or four more years to get it, if they ever got it.”
Originally built for financier Otto Kahn in 1921, the 126-room Oheka is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Cold Spring golf course and the property surrounding it that was used to develop about 300 single-family homes and the Otto Keil nursery behind the country club were all part of the original Kahn estate.
Photo by Judy Walker
Once used as a retirement home for the town’s municipal employees and later as the home of the Eastern Military Academy, the castle was abandoned and crumbling when Melius took ownership in 1984. Over the years, Melius claims he has spent $46 million on renovations and improvements to the Oheka property.
In addition to ongoing financial woes, Melius survived an attempt on his life in Feb. 2014, when he was shot in the face by a still-unknown assailant. Now 78, the ever-feisty castle owner says he feels terrific, despite this latest development tug-of-war.
“I got over getting shot in the f—ing head,” he said. “You think these guys are going to bother me?”
Melius touted the support of the community and the town board in gaining approval for his project and predicted the neighboring proposed development would face an uphill battle.
“You think they have a chance when the whole community is against them? Never,” Melius said, “especially with the political power I have.”
Meanwhile, observers wondered if a comment by Supervisor Smyth following the vote to approve the Oheka plan might signal prejudice against the club’s pending proposal.
“I would congratulate Cold Spring Country Club for now having the most valuable piece of unbuildable land on Long Island and the lawyers will understand that,” Smyth said.
Oheka attorney McCarthy said that the best situation would be for the two parties to get together and build the original project.
“But there’s a lot of sniping going on and a lot of lawyering going on and it doesn’t help the community and it doesn’t help anybody except these warring factions,” he said. “The country club has a very nice piece of property, they’ve got very good lawyers, I’m sure that they can create a very successful development project.”
While the club’s condo proposal preserves the golf course, club officials say its existing zoning could also allow the development of nearly 300 single-family homes if the entire golf course was sold. But Solow said that’s not being contemplated at this time.
Instead, Solow says the club would like to see everybody succeed.
“If everybody is successful, everybody is happy,” he said.
Huntington Bancshares continues to prioritize efficiency through branch reduction, cautious spending and automation in 2023. The $179 billion bank outlined technology development efforts during its November 2022 Investor Day and announced plans for 2023 at the Bank of America Securities Financial Services Conference last week. “We doubled technology development investment between 2019 and 2022 and […]
The three highest-priced home sales in Huntington last month ranged from $1.075 million to $1.849 million.
The priciest Huntington home sold in January was a 5-bedroom, 3-bath farm ranch on 1.38 acres at 21 Thorman Lane that sold for $1.849 million. It was listed and sold by Diane O’Connor and Mary Alice Ruppert of Coach Realtors.
A 4-bedroom, 4.5-bath colonial on .50 acres at 28 Whitewood Court fetched $1.35 million. It was listed by Gayle Snyder of Coach Realtors and sold by Sheila Wenger of Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
At 52 Southdown Road, a 4-bedroom, 3.55-bath post-modern on 1.04 acres went for $1.075 million. It was listed by Ginger Dara and Paul Dara of Coldwell Banker American Homes and sold by Nikki Taylor Friedman and Edward Schmidt of Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
Huntington Bancshares is planning to accelerate its automation efforts using savings gained from shuttering 63 branches in 2022. WHY IT MATTERS: Huntington outlined during its August 2022 Investor Day some core tech initiatives, including automating and enhancing the customer experience. “To further accelerate the execution of these strategies and support increased efficiency, we will be […]
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A Michigan man who was thrown out of a West Virginia bar during a New Year’s Eve party was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison stemming from a shooting that wounded seven people.
Kymoni Davis, 33, of Redford, Michigan, was sentenced in federal court to being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Davis was thrown out of a party at the Kulture Hookah Bar in Huntington on Dec. 31, 2019. He returned with a 9mm pistol and fired shots through the door before fleeing, according to court records. Surveillance video and witness statements helped identify Davis.
The victims were treated at a hospital and released. Authorities shut down the bar, citing licensing issues and a failure to pay taxes.
Davis had three prior felony convictions in state court in Michigan.
“This senseless act of gun violence demonstrates the consequences when firearms are in the wrong hands,” U.S. Attorney Will Thompson said in a statement.
Technology spend at banks grew in the third quarter as mobile usership, tech partnerships and digital enhancements remained a priority for most of the larger financial institutions. The $1.6 trillion Goldman Sachs, for one, allocated $459 million for technology and communication in Q3, up 16% year over year. The $3.1 trillion Bank of America’s tech […]
The three highest-priced home sales in Huntington last month ranged from $1.501 million to $5.499 million.
The priciest Huntington home sold in September was a 5-bedroom, 4.55-bath waterfront ranch on 2.5 acres at 8 Wincoma Drive that sold for $5.499 million. It was listed by Maria Boccard of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty and sold by Daniel Gale’s William Stark.
A 7-bedroom, 4.5-bath colonial on 1.01 acres at 101 Mannetto Hill Road fetched $1.75 million. It was listed by Gary Baumann, Timothy Galligan and Nattanicha Nawang of Keller Williams Points North and sold by Nancy Jarvis of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty.
At 6 Makanna Drive, a 5-bedroom, 4.5-bath colonial on .73 acres went for $1.501 million. It was listed by Donna Spinoso Gelb and Maria Lanzisero of Compass and sold by Karen Roth of Re/Max Integrity Leaders.
