Winter Sports Park Pitched
By Dawn Wotapka Hardesty
Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Riverhead’s town board on Wednesday got its first official glimpse at a $750 million sports and entertainment complex pitched for 755 acres at the former Enterprise Park at Calverton.

The project, called SnowValley Sports Park, is the latest in a long series of proposals developers have dreamed up for a site turned over by the U.S. Navy in 1988.

The SnowValley plan could include indoor snow slopes with a 425-foot vertical drop, a water park, sports academies and a white-water rafting course. There’s also talk of a 500-room hotel, 400,000-square-foot convention center and 3,000 timeshare suites.

Aspiring developer Stewart International estimated that the complex would bring $50 million in sales property and hotel occupancy tax benefits. It also promised the completed project would employ more than 2,000, and that the plan would have minimal impact on traffic, even though it could house 21,000 people at a time and attract 3.3 million people per year.

Morton Weber, the firm’s senior partner, wouldn’t say how much Stewart International would offer for the property.

SnowValley has competitors for the property, which is one of Suffolk’s biggest undeveloped parcels. Representatives from Top Gun Sports & Entertainment, another entertainment project that includes a racetrack, attended Wednesday’s meeting. Pulte Homes, meanwhile, aims to build more than 600 units for senior adults, though that project has been rezoned and its size has been winnowed in the past few months.

The sports use, which meets current zoning, is “exactly what the town has been requesting for the past 10 years,” said Mitch Pally, the Weber Law Group partner helping represent the developer.

Board member Ed Densieski said the presentation impressed him.

"I look forward to seeing what the financials are," he said.

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