Development deal dumped

By Dawn Wotapka Hardesty

HUNTINGTON -- A last-minute contract dispute caused Gary Melius to abandon his $90 million plans to buy the Cold Spring Country Club.

“The deal’s off,” said Melius, who owns the adjacent Oheka Castle, a luxury hotel. “It’s dead.”

For two years, Melius worked to buy the 169-acre, 18-hole private golf club to build townhomes. Because Cold Spring’s 200 or so members own it, they would have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each for the property.

But Tuesday night, when members were to vote on the proposed sale, club representatives wanted to alter the contract at the last minute, Melius said. He wouldn’t reveal the change.

Melius said he requested his $3 million deposit back for the property once owned by wealthy financier Otto Kahn.

“I’m just going to go forward. I have other stuff to do,” he said Wednesday afternoon.

The club, which straddles the Nassau-Suffolk border, was being shopped a year ago. At that time, Huntington officials passed a moratorium banning development of any of the town’s private courses. That moratorium will continue until next year.