Hampton Bays motel conversion progresses after approval

The Southampton Town Planning Board unanimously approved an application by the owners of the Tiana Pines Garden Apartments to convert their Hampton Bays motel into an apartment complex, 27east reported. Currently, the motel has 16 units, but town officials requested that the owners add three affordable units. The latest approval follows others by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services and the Town Zoning Board of Appeals. The motel had already been illegally operating as an apartment complex for more than 20 years. The owners, Domenico and Vincenza Iadevaia, tried to get a variance in 2013, but were initially denied. To secure the approval, the owners agreed to various property improvements. The owners will lose that approval if they fail to file their improvement plans within 90 days. The Tiana Pines Garden project comes as a similar effort is underway in Hampton Bays to renovate the Canoe Place Inn for $110 million. That project broke ground in December. Gregg and Mitchell Rechler of the Rechler Equity Partners plan to build 37 townhouses on the east banks of the Shinnecock Canal by 2020. [27east]