Huntington delays Valencia Tavern demolition, development

Plans to demolish the popular Valencia Tavern in Huntington have stalled.

The town planning and environment department sent a letter of denial to the developer who wants to demolish the bar and replace it with a mixed-use building with retail or office space and apartments.

James Margolin, the Huntington-based attorney for developer 236 VT Wall Street LLC, which is managed by Greg De Rosa and Mark Hamer, received the letter this month saying the proposed plan to build a three-floor building with 12 apartments on the upper floors needed a variety of zoning variances.

The variances would include parking, having upper floors exceeding the footprint of the building and obstructing vision at an intersection.

Margolin said he doesn’t know when the developers will file an application to the zoning board to proceed.

Patrons of the favored watering hole for a disparate group of Huntington residents started a petition to save the bar, which has been at 236 Wall St. since 1933. Huntington native Matt Suter, 36, who now lives in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, and who helped organize the petition, said the beauty of the Valencia is that it’s off the beaten track and away from the downtown bar scene, welcomes locals from across three or four generations and pays homage to the town’s past with the historic photos that adorn the walls.

“It’s really a precious thing,” Suter said. “For that to be lost would be an irreparable tear to the fabric of Huntington.”

Valencia owner Elizabeth Turney said she is ready to get out of the bar business and after the death of her father Hank, with whom she co-owned the bar, it hasn’t been the same. She said she is willing to donate the bar’s name, equipment and inventory to the staff and they can reestablish it elsewhere.

“I appreciate they love the bar which means we did a good job,” Turney said. “But the bar is going to close at that location.”

The proposed development would cross two lots, the Valencia Tavern parcel and a larger one owned by West Shore Holdings on West Shore Road, according to town officials. The developer’s plan is to demolish three buildings on the two sites, town officials said.

The current general business district allows for mixed-use buildings. Part of the development site extends into residential zoning and would require a depth extension variance.

A conceptual site plan submitted to the town includes two options. One requires the developer to purchase 9,184 square feet of surplus town-owned land along West Shore Road where it intersects with Creek Road. The other option does not include the town-owned land.

The tavern was built as a residence and completed in 1933. Benjamin Juliano applied for a permit to operate a restaurant in the house even though the property was zoned for residential use. Neighbors objected and the town denied the application. Juliano then applied to rezone the property for a business use, which was granted in August 1933.

Although the Valencia Tavern building does not have the age of others in Huntington that date back centuries, the building next door at 6 West Shore Rd. was built in 1878 and is of interest to the town’s Historic Preservation Commission, which has suggested that it be moved to a vacant lot nearby on Mill Lane, Town Historian Robert Hughes said. The third structure, a historic house at 10 West Shore Rd. “has been too extensively changed to merit preservation,” Hughes said.

At Tuesday night’s town board meeting Nicole Hoyt, 24, said she spent months looking for an affordable rental apartment in Huntington, where she works, but had no luck and ended up renting in Bay Shore.

“I think the best thing for that piece of land is for apartments to go up,” she said. “It would be a better benefit for more people.”