A revitalized historic inn and a new luxury townhouse community on opposite banks of Long Island’s Shinnecock Canal are poised to bolster a resurgence in Hampton Bays, a hamlet in the western part of the Hamptons once considered its stepchild.
Last month, 12 years after Gregg and Mitchell Rechler, developers who are cousins and comanaging partners in Plainview, N.Y.-based Rechler Equity, began seeking approvals, ground was broken on the canal’s western bank for the restoration of the Canoe Place Inn. A stagecoach shop when the town of Southhampton (which encompasses Hampton Bays) was established in 1640, the inn was frequented by Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt in its heyday, according Brenda Berntson, president of the Hampton Bays Historical and Preservation Society. Shuttered since 2009, its last incarnation was as a nightclub.
A State of Trust 