Two of the partners in Sag Harbor’s controversial 79-unit affordable housing proposal bailed on the project — another gut punch for the development.
Conifer Realty and Smith & Henzy Advisory Group both backed out, 27East reported. Confider was leading the development and Smith & Henzy was charged with finding financing. Designer BHC Architects remains with the project.
The departing companies cited the financial climate as the rationale for quitting, as the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes have made financing harder to come by.
But it would be impossible to discount the objections to the project from some in the tony Hamptons community, lighting up message boards on NextDoor and other social media.
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Adam Potter, chairman of Friends of Bay Street, proposed the affordable housing complex in June. It would span five lots across 1.4 acres at 11, 12, and 23 Bridge Street, and 8 and 12 Rose Street. The three-story, $70 million development would take up 106,000 square feet, including 30,000 square feet of commercial space.
To some in Sag Harbor, that counts as massive. Opponents have focused their comments on the project’s size, location and traffic impact, rather than the income or race of residents who would occupy it.
Community group Save Sag Harbor, named as if the enclave’s very existence were at stake, filed a lawsuit in the fall to overturn town laws passed this year that created an affordable housing program and rezoned to allow for such developments.
The community group cited concerns about adverse environmental impacts from the project, arguing that its environmental review was insufficient.
“This project would drastically increase density, involve excavations on a toxic waste site, put massive structures in an area known to flood regularly, have serious impacts on parking and traffic congestion, and it could threaten the scale and historic character of the village,” the group wrote to Sag Harbor Mayor James Larocca.
While the lawsuit is only beginning to make its way through the legal system, the developers faced another setback last month. The Village Board ruled they must file a draft environmental impact statement, which could take months.
— Holden Walter-Warner