Owner Pitches Plans for Restuarant, Marina at Former Mill Creek Inn

The owner of the building that currently stands on the site of the former Mill Creek Inn on Route 25 — a building that has been stalled in construction for years — told town officials on Monday he would like to make the new building into a restaurant to go along with a marina.

However the site has a number of hurdles to deal with before food is served and boats can dock.

Eugene Burger purchased the 3.27-acre property — 1.8 acres of which are upland — near Port of Egypt in June for $2.4 million, and told members of the Planning Board and Planning Department at the monthly work session that the building currently has no interior finish and the previous property owner added boat slips to the marina-zoned property illegally.

After the recent meeting with members of the Town Trustees and Department of Environmental Conservation — who he said "seemed favorable" to making amendments to the property — Burger needs to find room for roughly 90 parking spaces at the location as things currently stand.

"That's our big concern, and how to handle this with Planning," said Nancy Steelman, Burger's architect, of Samuels and Steelman Architects in Cutchogue.

Burger added that he's currently in talks to purchase an adjacent property, also owned by the Mill Creek Inn property's former owner Richard Principi. While he said purchasing the property next door would likely solve his parking problems, he said Principi wants "a substantial amount for it."

In order to use the second floor of the property — and all 50 slips, less than half of which are legal — the property will need to obtain site plan approval.

In September Town Trustees approved changes Burger can make to bulkheading on the property, as well as legalized decks which had previously not been considered in compliance with the town's Local Waterfront Revitalization Program.