Manhasset Bay Villa Delays Continue

More than a decade has passed since Island Estates, a Ronkonkoma-based residential developer, signed a contract with Thypin Steel to buy the property on Manhasset Isle in order to build 96 brand new townhouses on Manhasset Bay. Yet the developer, on its website, still prominently features the project.

Is there new activity? Not just yet. The Village of Manorhaven, for instance, has not heard from the developer in the last two years, according to a village spokesman. But residents may want to stay tuned.

"It's definitely not dead," said Lennard Axinn, president of Island Estates. "The seller has some environmental cleanup obligations that have taken them so far 10 to 12 years and $3 million for what's really not a very serious problem. But for some reason they can't get a sign-off from the DEC [Department of Environmental Conservation], so we're not buying it until it's cleaned up because we can't build on it until it's cleaned up."

In February 2001, the site owner Richard Thypin entered into a voluntary cleanup agreement to remediate the site with the DEC. This agreement required the investigation and remediation of onsite and offsite soil, groundwater and potential soil vapor contamination. As a precaution to the possible contamination, Island Estates altered its original plans and moved all living spaces in the villas to the upper floors, using the ground level for only storage and garages.

While Thypin Steel currently owns the property and is responsible for the time and money required for the cleanup, the company may not have caused the pollution on the site.

Since the 1980s, the site has been vacant. The facility buildings were demolished during that time. Historical activities at the site have included the manufacturing of sea planes and processing of metalurgical products. Past disposal practices have led to the contamination of subsurface soil and groundwater with volatile organic compounds.

"There was an old steel plant there, but I think the pollution may have actually occurred when the federal government owned the property in the war years in the 40s," Axinn explained. "But the plant has been closed since 1983 and then it was torn down in maybe 1993."

The site has been deemed a brownfield, which the Environmental Protection Agency defines as  "real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant."

In regards to how long the remaining cleanup could take and when ground will be broken on the villas, Axinn could only speculate. "It's probably still 18 months away," he said.

The timeframe of the cleanup is less significant than the actual cleanup itself, according to Citizens Campaign for the Environment, which works to protect the environment and public health for residents in New York and Connecticut. "It's most important that the site is fully cleaned up, and that will be good for the environment and good for the health of the residents," said Maureen Dolan Murphy, CCE's executive programs manager, from the organization's Long Island office in Farmingdale. 

"The DEC is involved in the cleanup of this site," said Bill Fonda, the regional citizen participation specialist at the DEC. "I don't know if our involvement in the cleanup of this site is impacting the negotiations that are going on between Island Estates and Richard Thypin, but essentially Thypin is responsible for the on-site, as well as the off-site, cleanup of this site."

Once the cleanup is finished and determined acceptable by the DEC, Island Estates will begin construction, but a price on the new units will not be determined until then.

"It's hard to say because we signed a contract on this in 1999 and the market has gone all over the map since then, up and down and all around," Axinn said. "So depending on when we actually start marketing the units, and then can start building, that will determine what the price will be."

While the pricing may be an unknown, Axinn's vision for the units on the property is clear. "There will be 13 that are direct waterfront and a number of them that of course have water views. There will be a little clubhouse and a pool, and it's going to be a very nice community."

Additional reporting by Adina Genn.