After much controversy, Silver Sands in Greenport plans late June reopening

After an extensive, controversial, multi-million-dollar renovation, Greenport’s iconic Silver Sands Motel is expected to reopen this summer under new management.

During a tour of the ongoing construction project this week, co-owner Alex Perros said that he aims to open the 20-room motel on the property to guests in late June. (The resort’s website is currently accepting reservations starting July 1.)

Along the way, however, the year-long project has generated sustained and at times heated controversy. At the heart of the issue is the question of whether the work being done on the property was properly permitted at all times — and whether or not the large-scale renovation threatens the necklace of wetlands that rings the 30-acre parcel and its 1,400 feet of private beachfront facing Shelter Island.

In a series of interviews with The Suffolk Times in recent months, including during this week’s tour of the property, Mr. Perros adamantly denied the allegations and contended that he and his partners have “been working closely with the town from the beginning to get the proper permits in place so that we could conduct the work.” He said the property will be solely powered by electricity and that the wetlands and the bay have been protected throughout.

Yet critics contend that the project has moved forward too quickly and at times without proper permitting. Since last fall, emails and flyers containing unverified allegations have been circulated in the community and posted to Greenport-specific social media pages. Some of those same allegations have surfaced in letters to the editor of this newspaper, most of which have gone unpublished due to the unverified nature of the accusations.

“We have nothing to hide,” Mr. Perros said this week. “We are rejuvenating these buildings. We have not expanded the footprint of a single building on the property. We have worked with the existing footprints so that everything can be preserved as-is.”

Mr. Perros went on to say that protecting the environment surrounding the property has been a key priority for the project from the start.

“There’s no gas, no oil,” he said. “We have no propane, no oil tanks, no natural gas lines, so it’s a clean place. That speaks to how much we are interested in protecting the environment.” Mr. Perros said that all the utility poles on the property will soon be removed now that the electrical cables have been buried underground.

Greenport is part of Southold Town, and local officials said the project has gotten “plenty of scrutiny.”

“The [town] attorney’s office and the chief building inspector are inspecting it regularly,” Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell told The Suffolk Times earlier this year. “Any of the work that’s being done has already been given the approval of the town building inspector, who is the ultimate zoning authority.”

Mr. Russell said town Trustees have also been present on site to review the work.

Southold Town’s Trustees declined comment. Trustee Liz Gillooly said in a February email that the Trustees “have been advised by legal counsel not to comment on applications that are open before our board.” Noting that “Silver Sands Motel Inc. currently has multiple pending applications with our board,” Ms. Gillooly said that “all comments from Trustees should be reserved for public hearing.”

The motel will continue to take advantage of a 1989 sewer contract agreement with Greenport Village in which the Silver Sands compound, which is not within village boundaries, pays for its wastewater by the gallon. The complex also pays utility fees as it relies on the village’s electric grid.

Mr. Perros said that over the course of the summer, interior work on some of the property’s cottages and bungalows will be completed and those stand-alone units will become available for rent.

Mr. Perros and his main partner in the project, chef Ryan Hardy of the New York City-based Delicious Hospitality Group, are working on renovating the former snack bar on the motel’s southwest corner and opening it up as a diner sometime this year.

“We’re going through our permits with the [Suffolk County] Department of Health on that,” Mr. Perros said.

He noted, however, that a former 50-seat bar that operated in a building on the edge of the property now known as the “boathouse” will not reopen this summer.

Silver Sands also owns 15 acres of underwater land, spanning the length of the beachfront, which will continue to be leased to Oysterponds Shellfish Company in Orient.

“They have their seedlings in Orient, but they have, I believe, six million oysters out here now, and they grow and farm those 15 acres underwater. Protecting that is critically important to us.”

Mr. Perros stressed that by the time guests begin arriving in late June, all exterior work on the property will either be completed or suspended for the summer season.

“The entire property will be landscaped, and when guests are staying here, nobody will have the impression that they are part of a construction site.” He said only noiseless interior work will continue.

“We don’t want to have guests here hearing hammers and saws,” he said.

He said the original birdhouses on the property are being repainted and put back into use and the landscaping and vegetation will all be native.

“We’re investing an enormous amount — of not just money but thought — into the gardens and the landscaping around the property. We’re promoting bee pollinators and native plants.”

Mr. Perros said the property would maintain the spirit of the original motel but with modern amenities.

“We’re not trying to create a retro hotel,” he said. “We’re not trying to bring people here to see what it was like in the 1950s. That’s not what it will look like. This is a rejuvenation project more than it is a restoration project.”