Friar’s Head tax refund drives Riverhead tax debt surge

A single tax fight over Friar’s Head on Sound Avenue helped drive Riverhead’s tax debt to about $7.24 million this year, leaving homeowners to absorb the cost through a chargeback that appeared on local tax bills.

About $6 million of that total was tied to the Baiting Hollow golf club, a private 18-hole championship course owned by Traditional Links LLC. County figures confirmed by Riverhead Assessor Laverne Tennenberg show the county initially paid the refund and then recouped it through the line item labeled New York State Real Property Tax Law.

The Friar’s Head case was not a one-year dispute. Court records show it covered tax years 2008/2009 through 2014/2015 and centered on a roughly 350-acre parcel at 3000 Sound Avenue. The property includes a clubhouse, guest cabins, a maintenance complex and about 58 acres of vacant land along the bluffs overlooking Long Island Sound. The Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed the lower court’s judgment on Feb. 28, 2024, leaving in place the reduction in assessments and the order that overpayments be refunded.

Those assessments had been set by the Town of Riverhead at values ranging from about $27.4 million to $36.9 million during the years at issue. The petitioner’s expert valued the property at roughly $9.2 million to $10.7 million, a gap that illustrates how far apart the town and the golf club were over the parcel’s taxable worth.

The financial hit did not stop with the refund itself. Reports say the Friar’s Head payment included about $4.4 million in refunded taxes and more than $1.6 million in interest. Riverhead’s tax debt charge was the highest in at least a decade, a sign that one high-value commercial assessment dispute can ripple far beyond the property involved and land on ordinary taxpayers.

That ripple is now reaching Riverhead’s budget. The town’s tentative 2026 spending plan calls for a roughly 6.7% townwide tax-rate increase, and town officials have had to consider overriding New York’s 2% property tax levy cap. The Riverhead Town Board also scheduled a public hearing on a local law that would allow the cap to be pierced for 2026.

The Friar’s Head refund has become a warning sign for Riverhead’s assessment system. It shows how a long-running certiorari case can quietly turn into a broad municipal liability, and it raises the prospect that more refunds, more chargebacks and more pressure on local taxpayers could still be ahead.