Appeals Court to Hear Brinkmann’s Hardware Land Lawsuit

Attorneys for Brinkmann’s Hardware argued that the Town of Southold illegally condemned the store’s land in a case that went before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Wednesday, May 3.

Sayville-based Brinkmann’s Hardware, which has locations across Long Island, purchased a 2-ace vacant lot in Mattituck where it planned to build a 12,000-square-foot store, but the town used eminent domain to seize the land, saying that it planned to build a park there.

In their lawsuit, filed on May 4 of 2021, Brinkmann’s alleged that the town had fabricated these plans to build a park on the Main Road location in order to condemn the land under eminent domain.

Brinkmann’s reportedly purchased the lot for $700,000 in 2016 and the town later enacted a construction moratorium in the area. The hardware chain said in court documents that Southold’s plans for building a park were “a sham.”