Merokean purchases the Coral House

Merrick resident Butch Yamali first stepped into the Coral House in Baldwin in 1970, when he was 8. He was there with his mother, Dorothy, for an Island Park Cub Scout dinner. Little did he know that one day he would own the place, one of the South Shore’s most prestigious catering and banquet halls.

Yamali, 49, said he knew the Coral House’s previous owner, Bill Ferguson, through the Merrick-North Merrick Little League, which Yamali led as president for eight years. In October, Ferguson contacted Yamali, asking him if he was interested in purchasing the lakefront plaza. Within two months, the deal was done. According to Yamali, the purchase was a dream come true.

“It’s exciting that you can be a part of someone’s big day,” he said. “If it’s a Sweet 16, wedding, bar mitzvah or even an awards dinner, that’s their special day.”

Yamali, who bought the Malibu Beach Club in 2009 and the Sands at Lido Beach last January, officially took control of the Coral House on Dec. 14, adding it to his catering enterprise, which he calls the Dover Group.

The Coral House, which overlooks Milburn Lake just off Sunrise Highway, has been around in one form or another since the 1600s, said Yamali, originally serving as a gristmill. But it wasn’t until the 1900s that the building became a banquet hall. According to its new owner, the facility hosts between 700 and 800 parties a year, ranging from weddings to birthday celebrations to anniversaries to awards dinners and more.

The building has nine party rooms, including four main rooms, two auxiliary rooms and three smaller rooms. Yamali said he inherited about 300 reservations, and now the total has risen to more than 700. “It’s a very, very hard time to take over, in the middle of Christmas,” he said. “So to take over that week and not have any disturbance — you didn’t even know there was new ownership.”

Since the takeover last month, Yamali said, he has been making some renovations and repairs. “The place needs upgrades and cleaning,” he said. “There were different things that needed to be fixed, and we’re working on it.”