Albicocco’s Harbor Club Catering Hall, Prime Restaurant’s Site in Halesite for Sale

Two well-known waterfront commercial properties,  The Harbor Club and Prime Restaurant have been put up for sale by their owner, Port Dock Holdings Inc.

The reason for the sale: Port Dock’s president, Oreste Albicocco,  a former area resident, says he wants to return to his home in Montana.

“I’m looking to sell all my properties," said Albicocco, president of Port Dock Holdings. “I have a home in Montana and I want to go back there.”

The asking price for the 13,000-square-foot, 300-seat catering facility is $4.5 million, according to a flyer distrbuted by Woodbury-based Commercial Realty Services of Long Island, which is marketing the propery. The facility is also available for lease at an annual asking rent of $260,000.

The sale is being handled by Robert Hirschfeld and Michael Ruggiero, both senior managing directors at Commercial Realty Services.

“We’re looking to see if someone’s interested,” Hirschfeld said. “It’s a beautiful property. It’s a beautiful catering hall.”

Hirschfeld said the Harbor Club would be sold as a going business with its current bookings and any bookings that may be made prior to its sale.

The site is restricted to use as a catering hall and cannot be converted to a restaurant under terms of a lease for the adjacent Prime Restaurant, Hirschfeld said.

The catering business “is okay,” Albicocco said.  “It’s not great. It’ll be all right.”

Albicocco, who is a real estate broker in Big Fork, Mont., said he is also trying to sell 117 New York Ave., the adjacent property, which houses Prime Restaurant.

Operations of the restaurant, owned by the Bohlson Restaurant Group, which leased the property for 40 years from Albicocco’s company in 2005, would not be affected by a sale.  The Bohlsons have the right of first refusal on the site, Albicocco said. The Prime site formerly was Co-Co’s Waterfront Cafe, a night club operated by the Albicocco family, which once also owned JohnAnthony’s on the Bay, a catering hall in Babylon.

Bohlson executives  could not be reached for comment. Suzee Foster, a spokeswoman for Prime, said in an email, 'No news on building sale and not sure this is news."'

The Halesite properties, constructed in the 1980's, once were sand and gravel yards for Port Dock, a business founded by Albicocco’s late father, Sam, an influential businessman who was famous for building first and getting approval later for changes to the harborfront land.

Oreste Albicocco has run the company under terms of a 2004 federal bankruptcy court settlement that ended a dispute among family memers.