Adam Potter Announces Proposal For 79-Unit Affordable Housing Development, With Retail On Ground Floor, In Sag Harbor Village

The same day the Sag Harbor Village Board adopted three new measures designed to encourage the development of affordable housing in the village, Adam Potter, the face behind the Friends of Bay Street Theater, said he had plans to do just that with property he has been acquiring along Bridge and Rose streets.

Potter, on Tuesday, June 14, said he would propose a development at the site that would create 79 affordable apartments and also provide approximately 30,000 square feet of commercial space, in a development designed to look like the existing Sag Harbor Main Street streetscape.

The project, designed by BHC Architects of Melville, a firm that is responsible for a number of mixed-use developments on the East Coast, including numerous buildings on Long Island, would feature a three-story building with commercial uses on the ground floor and apartments on the two stories above. There would be 62 one-bedroom units and 17 two-bedroom apartments.

Potter said the commercial space would be divided as needed to provide tenants with maximum flexibility.

The project would face Bridge Street, with a separate one-story commercial building in the center, with a courtyard, planted with a lawn, behind it. The main building would be shaped like a horseshoe, surrounding the courtyard.

The development, totaling 105,798 square feet over three floors, would be constructed on a 1.44-acre site that would be assembled from five separate lots — 11, 12, and 23 Bridge Street, and 8 and 12 Rose Street — that Potter began to purchase through a variety of limited liability companies shortly after the Friends of Bay Street bought the property at 22 Long Island Avenue, known for the 7-Eleven store, as a site for a new theater in October 2020.

In a brief interview on Tuesday afternoon, Potter stressed that the $70 million development was being financed independently of the effort to build a new theater complex on the site of 22 Long Island Avenue, and that none of the investors in the theater project were involved in this one.

The 22 Long Island Avenue purchase was backed by Stephen Ross, the chairman and founder of the Related Companies, a real estate development firm in New York.

He said architect Roger Ferris continues to work on an updated design for the theater.

Potter said he had begun to assemble properties, including the former Dodds & Eder home furnishings store, as a means to provide landing spaces for businesses that would be displaced by both the sale of 22 Long Island Avenue and the possible sale of 2 Main Street to Southampton Town to expand John Steinbeck Waterfront Park.

He said he pivoted to the idea of providing affordable housing as the topic became a hot-button issue in the village over the past year.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to address the critical need for affordable housing in Sag Harbor, where generational families are being displaced because they can’t afford to live here,” he said. “At the same time, it recognizes the potential that 22 Long Island and 2 Main may be demolished,” creating the need for space for businesses that will be displaced.

Village officials said they had been informed that Potter would be submitting formal plans on Wednesday, and while they said they knew some of the details of the project, they had yet to see renderings and layouts.

Mayor Jim Larocca said he and Trustee Ed Haye had spoken to Potter and other would-be “providers” willing to propose significant affordable housing developments. “We spoke to everyone who was interested,” he said, “and he was one of them.”

As part of its newly created waterfront overlay district, which was adopted last year, the board will weigh in on the project because it is larger than 3,500 square feet. For that reason, Larocca said he did not want to comment on the proposal until he had an opportunity to review it in detail

“This is not going to be a short process,” added Haye. “There is going to be a significant amount of review that has to be done that will require significant input from the village boards.”

Trustee Aidan Corish, who said he first learned of the proposal after Tuesday’s board meeting, also weighed in. “I look forward to seeing the plans,” he said, “but like all these projects, the devil is in the details.”

Potter said he recognized that one of the most important details was whether the apartments would remain affordable. He said because the project is receiving financing from New York State and is being proposed under the guidelines of a new village law permitting three-story, mixed-use buildings with affordable apartments in the office district, they would remain so in perpetuity.

He said the one-bedroom units would range in size from 709 to 745 square feet and the two-bedroom apartments would be 890 to 945 square feet. He said if they were rented today, income guidelines established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would limit rents for the one-bedroom apartments to $1,542 per month and two-bedroom units to $1,847 per month.

A maximum of two people would be allowed to stay in a one-bedroom apartment, while three to four people would be allowed to live in a two-bedroom unit. Potter said he anticipated the development would add about 11 children to the Sag Harbor School District.

Trustee Bob Plumb said that while he welcomed a proposal for affordable housing, the Village Board had to tread carefully. “This puts us in a tough position because if you oppose this — it makes you look like you are against affordable housing,” he said. “I’d have to see it first, but my fear is it could overwhelm the village.”

Plumb said he had questions about parking, sewage disposal and the selection process, saying if the apartments are subsidized with state funds, it may require an open lottery for units.

Potter said the development team would discuss parking needs with village officials and said there were approximately 30 spaces on the site. He said he would work with the village to get the complex connected to the Sag Harbor sewage treatment plant, which does not yet serve the area. He added that the project’s engineering team would design a way to contain stormwater on site.

Besides the Village Board, the project will require approval from the Planning Board, both to merge the individual lots as well as the proposed site plan. It is likely the Zoning Board of Appeals will review the project as will the Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review.

Village officials said they envisioned a multi-year approval process. Potter said if the project were approved today, it would be completed in about 18 months.