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Greek Mediterranean Restaurant Slated To Open In June; Local Piermonter/Restaurateur Adam Landsman Planning Sunny’s On Former Knights Of Columbus Site
By Tina Traster
The Village of Piermont and its residents are intricately bound to the Hudson – born and privileged by its presence, benefiting from its beauty and bounty, but always mindful of its demeanor and at the mercy of its temperament.
These are the opening words of a 2018 report known as the Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP), which notes the challenges the Village has faced due to nor’easters and Superstorm Sandy in recent years. Add to that a global pandemic and a change of dining habits to understand why Piermont’s swath of private marinas and Hudson River restaurants on Piermont Avenue have been severely impacted in recent years.
Now the Village’s underutilized asset is poised for recovery with the addition of two seasoned restaurateurs, marina upgrades and additional boat slips, and the continued success of the 45-year-old legacy restaurant and marina, Cornetta’s Seafood Restaurant & Marina.
“As the LWRP said, Piermont is underutilizing its waterfront,” said Mayor Bruce Tucker. “But we may be at a turning point. I feel encouraged that all this planned activity could really help increase usage. This was the goal of the plan.”
In December, Chef Denis Whitton, who runs the speakeasy restaurant/bar Six23 Social in Sparkill, shuttered the longtime waterfront staple Pier 701 after a nearly ten-year run. After a careful search, the landlord, the Impagliazzo family, has leased the restaurant to the owner of Elia, an upscale Greek restaurant in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Founded in 2018 in the former Park & Orchard by the Rutherford native Annamaria Adinolfi and her mom Anna Rosati, the restaurant is named for the Greek word “olive.”
The Piermont restaurant, which will be solely owned by Adinolfi, will “be named something Greek but we’re not sure of the name yet,” said the solo entrepreneur. The owner is planning a 350-seat restaurant with year-round outdoor seating facilitated by an outdoor heating pergola.
Adinolfi said she plans to open the restaurant by mid-June; the inside has been gutted and the restaurateur said she’s waiting from furniture to be delivered from Greece. Chef José Luis Falcón, who helms Elia’s kitchen, will be top chef at the yet-to-be named Piermont restaurant. Falcón, a Mexico City native, has worked at New York restaurants including Nobu, Café des Artistes and Windows on the World, as well as the Trata restaurants in New York City and the Hamptons.
“We chose Piermont because it’s a beautiful community,” said Adinolfi. “It makes you feel like you’re away but not away.”
This is the first time the restaurateur is betting on the synergy of a restaurant and a marina.
The Tappan Zee Marina, along with the land occupied by Pier 701 and a residential house, were bought in April 2018 by Manhattan resident Andrew Impagliazzo for $4.25 million. Impagliazzo, who owns NYC-based IMP Plumbing & Heating Corp., hired family to run the marina the first year, then hired Oasis Marinas, a Baltimore, MD-based marina management company that manages 25 facilities, in 2019, but parted ways before the pandemic. The 50-slip marina needs work; Andrew Impagliazzo Jr said the family is investing an undisclosed amount to upgrade seawalls and replace docks.
Impagliazzo Jr. says a new tenant “will bring a different buzz to the property,” and he believes another professional-run restaurant along with more boat slips at 675 Piermont will be a boon to the waterfront.
“I feel optimistic,” said Impagliazzo. “We’re breathing new life into the waterfront. This will be a way to showcase Piermont, to attract new boaters.”
Next door is the vacant land at 675 Piermont Avenue, where the Knights of Columbus and a marina stood until Hurricane Sandy.
Adam Landsman, a Piermont resident and co-founder of Sunday Hospitality Group, a New York-based hospitality company whose restaurants include Café Chelsea, Rule of Thirds, Sunday in Brooklyn, El Quijote, has applied to the Village of Piermont for a Special Permit to construct a three-story structure at 675 Piermont Avenue.
Landsman is proposing a three-story restaurant and event space with parking on the ground floor and two levels of dining on the second and third floors. The proposed 14,800 square-foot building would include an 8,840 square-foot, 99-seat “Sunny’s” on the .40-acre site. The top floor would host private events.
A separate application filed with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to re-establish a pre-existing marina is also pending.
Piermont does not have a public marina, but there are approximately 150 boat slips between Tappan Zee Marina and Cornetta’s. The 675 Piermont Avenue’s offering statement says that the marina was eligible for 55 boat slips.
Landsman, through his 675 Piermont Owner LLC, is not the first owner to pitch a redevelopment of the site since Super Storm Sandy devastated the property. The Knights sold the property to Tappan-based 675 Piermont LLC in January of 2019 for $850,000. The new owner petitioned the Village for a text amendment that would have allowed the construction of eight attached luxury townhouses with rooftop amenities and a spa-style gym. The project never materialized.
While the petition was pending, the former Knights of Columbus building was demolished at the request of the Village in 2020.
In November of 2022, the then-vacant property was sold to Landsman’s 675 Piermont Owners LLC for $1,050,000. Along with the land, Landsman also acquired 2,000 feet of riparian rights which was previously permitted for up to 55 boats slips as a marina.
Earlier this month, Landsman received a negative SEQRA declaration from the Village Planning Board and preliminary site approval, according to Tucker. The applicant’s next stop is the Zoning Board of Appeals for a batch of variances including minimum lot width, side and rear yard setbacks, maximum building height, and floor area ratio (FAR). The WF-2 zone allows buildings up to 25 feet in height. The proposed building height at the top of its pitched roof is 32 feet. The proposed floor area ratio – the percentage measuring the size of the building to the size of the lot – is 80%. The code allows for only 27 percent FAR. 94 parking spaces are planned.
Sound dampening plans include directional speakers, glass barrier walls, limited access to volume controls, acoustic doors, and springs to limit reverberations.
“The key to this waterfront revival is that we have two people who are seasoned restaurateurs,” said Tucker. “The 675 project may also include a kayak launch. I’m encouraged that this, along with all these plans, could mean increased usage of the Hudson River.”
