Town Looks Back to Get to the Future With Cruise Boat

The Riverhead Dinner Boat already has a website, complete with rates, photos, and links to local businesses.

But a conversation at Thursday's town board work session between business partners operating the boat, the town board, and downtown Riverhead business owners revealed that there is no guarantee that the boat will be docking downtown on the Peconic River. 

While everybody at the table seemed willing to welcome the boat - a 98-foot yacht which would offer 4-hour tours in the Peconic Bay - one question that could derail the effort remained unanswered at the end of the meeting: what's the cost?

"If the number is not right, we're just not going to put the boat (in Riverhead)," said Vito DeCandia, one of the people involved with the project, after the meeting. "But I think everyone seemed receptive to the idea. Everybody understands that we're all business people and I think we can all find a way to make money and be happy."

In order to find an agreeable number - or at least get the ball rolling on a negotiation - the town dug into its files to find a prior agreement made with Peconic River Cruisers, owners of the last cruise boat to dock downtown, to use as a starting point.

According to Deputy Town Attorney Anne Marie Prudenti, the agreement signed in March of 1994 will be quite different from what the town will be using as a starting point this time around. While before the town signed a 10-year lease agreement (with a five-year renewal option), Prudenti sees a license agreement as far more agreeable to the town.

At any point during a license agreement, Prudenti said, the town will have the option to terminate the agreement. However Supervisor Sean Walter assured DeCandia he should not worry about such a situation arising.

"To bind the town into any type of agreement for 15 years while its undergoing such significant changes in development, I think it would be more prudent if the town entered into a license agreement for a limited duration," Prudenti said. 

She added that she may suggest to the town board an initial offer for a six month license agreement, and that the proper calculation in terms of a financial offer would be based off of an estimate from the town assessor's office. The lease with Peconic River Cruisers, according to its contract with the town, charged a yearly base rent of $3,840 in addition to taxes and start-up costs such as sewer hook-up ($8,000) and lease of a floating dock ($6,850).

"This way, with a license agreement, depending on the success, the responses, the goals of the town board and BID (Business Improvement District) and what they envision," Prudenti said, "the town can make sure the operation doesn't have a negative impact on restaurants and business downtown."

Such was the concern of representatives of local businesses. Representing the BID at Thursday's meeting were Anthony Coates, John Mantzopoulos (Athens Grill), and Ray Pickersgill (Robert James Salon), joined by Bob Lanieri (Atlantis Marine World) of the Riverhead Chamber of Commerce.

Mantzopolous recalled a four-hour conversation with DeCandia's partner in charge of marketing the boat, Ed Graham. The owner of Athens Grill said he loved the idea of such a boat downtown, "but there are a lot of 'buts.'"

"Being that I'm in the BID, and I'm in the parking district, I think I owe it to my fellow merchants to protect them and the tax base," he said. "I don't think it's fair for a boat to come in - a for-profit organization - and not pay anything for it."

The business community made it clear that parking was one of its concerns, especially considering businesses in the parking district pay taxes to support and maintain downtown's parking area. While Supervisor Sean Walter, among others, said that he would welcome a parking problem, DeCandia said he would be willing to pay his fair share, and added that his plan was to impact parking as minimally as possible.

He added that on Thursday evenings - nights when the BID hosts classic car shows - the boat wouldn't leave the dock, instead inviting car enthusiasts on board for a drink and a view. He also said many of the boat's patrons would be hotel guests, who they would shuttle to and from downtown.

"Our sole objective is to make this work for everybody," DeCandia said. "That's our sole contention. We understand there might be something we have to pay to make it fair. But we're businessmen too. If it's something that's going to cripple us, thanks anyways."

DeCandia added that in order to get ready for the season, he and his partners are on a strict timeline. The Cabana was recently pulled from its old dock in Manhattan, and is prepared to get painted and refurbished, costing upwards of $20,000. In order to pay for overhead costs sooner, he was hoping to have an agreement with the town "yesterday."

But until a price is negotiated, rates on the Riverhead Dinner Boat website remain subject to change.