Greenport’s oldest active working waterfront business is poised to change hands after Labor Day — setting up an early test of Suffolk County’s new effort to keep maritime land working.

The Greenport Yacht & Shipbuilding Co. — whose roots reach back to 1840 and which has been owned by Stephen Clarke for more than half a century — is in contract to be purchased by Huntington-based entrepreneur Nick Voulgaris III, according to Suffolk County Working Waterfront Committee records.

Mr. Clarke confirmed to The Suffolk Times that he plans to sell the Carpenter Street shipyard after the summer season, but declined to provide additional details.

The pending sale surfaced publicly at the committee’s June 9 meeting at Suffolk County Community College’s Riverhead campus, where Mr. Voulgaris was identified as the contract vendee for a proposed conservation easement covering roughly 3.23 acres of the 4.36-acre property.

A map included in the committee documents shows the full tax parcel, with a 1.13-acre “Greenport Shipyard Cut-out” excluded from the proposed easement area.

The exclusion leaves one of the application’s central issues unresolved: what uses could be allowed on that portion of the property outside the easement.

The shipyard is not just a scenic slice of harborfront. The site currently supports Costello’s Dock Builders, boat repair and boatbuilding facilities, boat storage, commercial fishing vessels, ferry service support, leased dock space, a pump-out station and other marine commercial uses. It also includes about 100 slips, according to the county staff report.

Then there is the rail haul-out system, the only remaining facility in the area capable of removing larger vessels from the water for drydock, inspection, repair and maintenance. The system remains in active use by Shelter Island ferry operators and larger commercial fishing vessels, which otherwise would have to travel off Long Island for comparable work, according to the report.

County records show the application was reviewed June 9, but no public appraisal or final easement agreement has been released. The application would still require further county review before Suffolk spends preservation money on the property.

Mary Bess Phillips, who serves on both the Working Waterfront Committee and the Greenport Village Board, told The Suffolk Times Thursday she would recuse herself from any vote because the property sits within the village and Greenport reviews wetland permits.

She said she participated in the committee discussion, however, and views the shipyard as an important early case for the new program.

“This shipyard could be the poster child for the new program,” Ms. Phillips said. “This particular piece of property is one that has a strong history in the Village of Greenport as far as participating in boat building over the years. It has always generated an economic engine for employees, for services within the incorporated village.”

Ms. Phillips pointed to Costello’s and other marine businesses on the property as examples of the kind of waterfront activity the program — modeled after Suffolk County’s farmland preservation efforts — is meant to protect.

“Despite the fact that it hasn’t been as active as everyone would like it to be as a shipyard, it’s also been an incubator for working waterfront businesses,” she said.

Greenport Mayor Kevin Stuessi said the pending sale is welcome news if the buyer continues the site’s marine role.

“It’s welcome news that Steve Clarke has found a buyer who he believes will carry on his long legacy of service at the shipyard serving the marine economy,” Mr. Stuessi told The Suffolk Times on Thursday. “Our administration made certain, with comprehensive waterfront code updates, that it will always have uses that support the working waterfront and even marine science.”

County Executive Ed Romaine signed the landmark law last September at Greenport’s railroad dock, where officials cast it as a lifeline for commercial fishing, aquaculture, marine repair and other water-dependent businesses.

Under the new program, Suffolk would not buy the historic shipyard outright. Instead, the county would pay for development rights through a conservation easement meant to restrict future use and preserve working waterfront functions. The property would remain privately owned.

The report says any future easement or acquisition agreement for Greenport should address continued water-dependent commercial uses, marine access, haul-out capacity, fueling-station regulatory issues, vessel removal and future hatchery or aquaculture improvements.

It also states that the prospective owner expects the property to be redeveloped after the transfer of title. Among the issues identified are abandoned vessels, including a submerged craft at the end of one pier; an existing diesel fueling station that would need to be re-registered; and an abandoned hatchery that could be redeveloped for oyster production, including a FLUPSY system, a floating nursery used to grow young shellfish.

The county has roughly $2.5 million to $2.6 million available in the program’s first year and $9.5 million committed through 2028.

A likely sale would continue the larger trend of family-owned North Fork waterfront businesses changing hands in a high-priced marina market. Brick Cove Marina in Southold sold for $6.5 million in 2020. The former New Suffolk Shipyard properties in Cutchogue and New Suffolk were sold in 2022 for a combined total of roughly $5.5 million.

Port of Egypt Marine, owned by the Lieblein family for 80 years, was sold in April to luxury yacht builder Hinckley as part of a broader expansion of its East Coast service network, as The Suffolk Times previously reported. Terms of that deal for the eight-acre Southold marina with 132 slips were not disclosed.

Those sales do not determine what the county would pay for a Greenport conservation easement, which would be appraised differently than a full property sale. But they make one thing clear: North Fork waterfront land is under heavy private market pressure.

The Greenport application is one of several early cases before the new committee. County staff gave Greenport Yacht & Shipbuilding a score of 21 out of 25 under the program’s ranking system.

County legislative records also show a Remsenburg marina application has already advanced to the appraisal stage, after the Working Waterfront Committee voted to recommend that parcel to the Legislature for consideration of a conservation easement.

At the same June 9 meeting, the committee also reviewed Southold Marine Center, a longtime Main Road marina that supports fishermen, baymen, aquaculturists, dock builders and other marine businesses, according to county staff. It also scored 21 out of 25.

A third application, Hampton Shipyard Marina in East Quogue, scored lower, at 15 out of 25. County staff noted that the applicant had narrowed the proposed easement area to exclude a proposed restaurant, parking area and septic leaching field.

Mr. Voulgaris is best known for reviving Kerber’s Farm in Huntington and has been described as an avid sailor and yacht-restoration enthusiast who has written books on Hinckley and Chris-Craft boats.

Mr. Clarke purchased the property in 1970, according to public records. Around Greenport, it has long been known simply as “the shipyard.” County materials also refer to the operation as Greenport Oyster Farm.

The Suffolk Times reached out to Mr. Voulgaris and Robert Carpenter, a Suffolk County planner involved with the Working Waterfront Program who attended the June 9 committee meeting, for comment.

Former Greenport mayor David Kapell, whose administration helped lead the village’s waterfront transformation, said the shipyard remains central to the village’s identity.

“The shipyard is the last remaining piece of old Greenport,” Mr. Kapell said. “I love that and most people who live here love that.”

The post Historic Greenport shipyard sale could test landmark working waterfront law appeared first on The Suffolk Times.

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