May 18, 2026 · Updated May 18, 2026
Riverhead's town board voted 4-1 Wednesday to approve a 68-unit mixed-use building one block from the Peconic River, the town's biggest downtown housing project in more than 20 years. Fourteen units will be capped for households earning 80 percent of area median income. Developer KPG Long Island expects to break ground by November.
Riverhead's town board voted 4-1 Wednesday to approve a 68-unit apartment building one block from the Peconic River, the largest residential project greenlit for downtown Riverhead in more than two decades.
The five-story mixed-use building at 201 East Main Street will include 54 market-rate rentals, 14 units affordable to households earning up to 80 percent of Suffolk County's area median income, and roughly 4,200 square feet of ground-floor retail. Developer KPG Long Island, a Melville-based firm, put the project cost at $28 million and said it expects to break ground by November.
Councilwoman Catherine Merz cast the dissenting vote, saying the town had not adequately studied traffic on East Main Street, where the state Department of Transportation recorded nearly 14,000 daily vehicle trips in 2024. "We don't have a plan for parking and we don't have a plan for the intersection at Osborn Avenue," she said at Tuesday's work session.
The board majority pointed to a Suffolk County housing report issued in March that found Riverhead was among five towns where workforce-affordable supply fell more than 11 percent between 2019 and 2024. Town Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said the project was consistent with a 2022 downtown master plan that identified the East Main corridor as the priority area for mixed-income housing.
The site is a shuttered auto-parts warehouse vacant since 2018, sitting 340 feet from the Peconic Riverfront Boardwalk the town opened last October. The boardwalk drew an estimated 28,000 visitors in its first six months, according to town figures, helping anchor several new restaurants and shops along the adjacent block of East Main Street.
Tom Pelligrino, who owns Legends Bar and Grille two doors east of the project site, watched the board's vote from the public gallery. "More people living right here means more foot traffic at lunch and after work," he said. "That's what the whole street has been waiting for."
KPG must submit a traffic impact study to the town by Aug. 1 and complete a state environmental quality review before permits can issue. The company projects the first units will be ready for occupancy in spring 2028.
