Melville Mall Expansion Moves Forward

Maryland-based development company Federal Realty Investment Trust plans to construct a 15,000-square-foot pad site at the front of the Melville Mall property on Walt Whitman Road. Google Maps photo

By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com

The Huntington Planning Board approved last month plans to construct a 15,000-square-foot extension of the Melville Mall.

Plans first submitted to the town in December 2017 show that Maryland-based development company Federal Realty Investment Trust wants to construct two additional buildings at the front of the 834 Walt Whitman Road property in Melville.

The Melville Mall currently houses Dick’s Sporting Goods, Field & Stream, Marshall’s, Macy’s Backstage and a new Uncle Giuseppe’s grocery store.

Plans show the new “pad site” is slated to include two proposed retail or restaurant spaces connected by an open plaza with a walkway leading through the parking lot to the existing shopping center at the other end of the property. The proposed buildings are slated to be 9,820 and 5,150 square-feet, respectively.

The Huntington Zoning Board of Appeals granted Federal Reality the required variances to move forward with the expansion in March 2017.

At last month’s planning board meeting, Planning Department director Anthony Aloisio said that town code requires 1,295 parking spaces for the entire site. He added that the 1,140 spaces proposed in the new plans “should be more than enough to meet the demands.”

“Much of the parking that has gone underutilized for all these years would be closer to the new use,” Aloisio said.

Planning board chairman Paul Mandelik added that the new pad site would make the Melville Mall a “much more attractive area for that part of 110.”

“It would be more attractive, which would conform somewhat with the small shopping center across the street that has also been updated and enhanced,” Mandelik said.

Federal Realty Investment Trust did not return a request for comment before deadline Wednesday.

Planning officials included a condition in the site plan approval that requires Federal Reality to make improvements to any parking spaces on the site “upon subsequent finding by the planning board that such improvement is needed as a result of increased demand generation or actual site conditions.”

Lighthouse MusicFest Rocks The Harbor

This year’s MusicFest rocked the waters as bands jammed out on top of the Huntington Lighthouse. The bands did not stop rocking until sunset, and neither did the thousands of boats that turned up to watch this past Labor Day weekend.

The music kicked off at 11 a.m., and the lineup was full of performances from musicians and bands that included: Perfect Strangers, Ed Travers Band, 60s Invasion Flashback, King Wellington, Wonderous Stories, Mercury 9, Dr. K’s Motown Revue, and Milagro.

Boats from as far as Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and New York City surrounded the lighthouse and could be seen for miles. Of course, locals from all over Long Island were in attendance as well.

“It’s a boating event,” Pamela Setchell, President of Huntington Lighthouse Preservation Society said.

The society was delighted that their motto, to “be safe and have fun” was embraced by boaters in attendance, and that they were able to raise more funds to keep maintaining the lighthouse.

They achieved this sending out “Teens on the Water” in launch boats, who sold t-shirts and captured boats “for bounty” by giving out beads and pirate themed toys. The society also put together a 116-page journal full of pictures, history, and facts about the lighthouse along with their sponsors’ advertisements that was given out the day of the festival.

The Huntington Lighthouse Preservation Society has great pride in the lighthouse, and loved that they could show off the $1.1 renovation of the foundation that was recently completed. The money they raised this year will be used to complete further renovations to the lighthouse, like adding new windows on the lower level and additional stone around the base.

The celebration of the beautiful waterfront that Long Island has to offer will hopefully be continued for many more years.

Gunther's Reopens Just The Way It Was

Boards were off the windows of Gunther’s Tap Room last week after a fire forced the owners to close for over a year. The iconic bar on Northport’s Main Street reopened Thursday.  Long Islander News photo/Pat Mellon

By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com

The owners of Gunther’s Tap Room announced that they plan to reopen for business Thursday, Sept. 6, more than a year after a fire ripped through the iconic Northport Village watering hole.

“It’s been a long time coming, and it feels amazing to get it open again,” Brad Vassallo, who co-owns Gunther’s with Eddie McGrath, said.

Gunther’s has been closed since May 23, 2017 when an early morning fire, which investigators believe originated in a faulty electrical box inside the bar, caused significant damage to the 81 Main St. building in the heart of Northport Village.

McGrath and Vassallo purchased Gunther’s in May 2016 after the bar’s previous owner Pete Gunther passed away.

The building was originally built in 1889 and served as The Commercial Hotel. Gunther’s later opened in 1962 and became a frequent stop of Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac through the late ’50s and early ’60s.

Despite the extensive work required to bring Gunther’s back into working order, Vassallo said the bar “looks very similar… almost exactly as it was” before the fire.

“That was the whole plan,” Vassallo said. “To bring it back to the way it was with the brown and orange walls.”

Vassallo said they were able to salvage the bar top after the fire, which is one of a few items to survive the fire that help the new Gunther’s “keep the same type of feel.”

The loss of Gunther’s “left a little hole” in the tight-knit Northport community, Vassallo said, and many former regulars and employees donated time, money and materials to help rebuild it.

“There are so many people who have stepped up to help get us to this point, and I want to thank all those people,” Vassallo said.