CPI Owners Board Up Historic Structure, End Lease With Tenant

The owners of the former Canoe Place Inn have ended a lease with their tenants, the Coliseum nightclub, and began boarding up the Montauk Highway building in preparation for demolishing the historic structure.

Gregg and Mitchell Rechler, of the Melville-based R Squared LLC and owners of the six-acre CPI property, filed demolition permits on October 4 at Southampton Town Hall. Drew Renter, a representative for the Rechlers, said at that time they planned to prepare to raze the structure this fall. Renter added that no definite development plans for the site had yet been decided. 

According to Jefferson Murphree Town Planning Director, the Rechlers must first get a decision from the Town Landmarks Committee and then to the Southampton Town Planning Board.

Hamlet community groups and the Historical and Preservation Society have worked effortlessly, campaigning to save the structure. Brenda Berntson, President of the Hampton Bays Historical and Preservation Society, said the inn should be considered a treasure due to is colorful and lengthy history. The property, she added, is one of the few historic gems in the hamlet.

Lucille Ball, Gary Cooper, Babe Ruth and Franklin D. Roosevelt reportedly stayed at the Canoe Place Inn during its heyday. Before that, the property was a stagecoach stop and tavern in the 1700s.  In recent decades, it has been a series of nightclubs.

Since the Rechlers purchased the property in 2004, they have been in discussion with town officials about development plans for the site. The initial plan was to build timeshares on the site—construction that requires a costly and time-consuming change of zone application. Later, both sides began discussing the option of the semi-preserved catering hall plus an additional 40 condos on the east side of the canal. But this deal was criticized by many community members.

The Rechlers did not return several calls for comment Monday.

The original structure, once headquarters for British officers during the Revolutionary War, burned in 1921. The inn was rebuilt and became a popular hangout for celebrities, political leaders and judges. The social elite ate in the restaurant and danced in the grand ballroom. In recent decades, the building has undergone a series of renovations that negated the majority of the interior's historic value. The structure has never been protected as a designated historical landmark and therefore has no protection as such from demolition.