Waterford — A town resident who has made his name recruiting executives for technology firms is proposing a different kind of venture: a gourmet barbecue smokehouse that his lawyer says would turn the mostly deserted Mago Point neighborhood into a “destination.”

Paul Daversa, who grew up in East Lyme and owns a house in Waterford, bought the former site of seafood restaurant Unk’s By the Bay in 2014.

Unk’s, formerly a Mago Point landmark, opened as a clam shack in the 1930s. After closing in 2010, it briefly became an Italian restaurant called Lisa’s Landing, which closed less than a year later.

The building — still widely known as “the Unk’s property” — fell into disrepair. The dilapidated building was one of several casualties of the 1991 construction of the Route 156 bridge, which Mago Point residents say has turned it into a “flyover” neighborhood and hindered development.

But Daversa, the CEO of a tech recruitment firm with offices in New York, California, Washington, D.C., Florida and Westport, Conn., saw an opportunity.

Daversa’s brother Pete is a nationally known barbecue chef.

Together, they plan to bring a high-end barbecue smokehouse — and an incentive for other businesses to invest — to Mago Point.

“Both wanted to come back and give something to the community,” said William R. Sweeney, an attorney who represents Paul Daversa in his business interests on Mago Point.

The brothers first planned to build a restaurant and housing development on the property.

“We had proposed a very large building with a residence on top, and several floors,” Sweeney said.

But the cost of following federal floodplain regulations that require new buildings on Mago Point to be elevated above the ground became prohibitive, Sweeney said.

Several plan versions later, Daversa has submitted a design for approval by the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission that would place a 4,500 square-foot restaurant on the former Unk’s site, surrounded by 1,800 square feet of outdoor deck space facing the Niantic River.

“This is going to be a destination,” Sweeney said.

Daversa declined to comment on the restaurant directly until his plans are approved.

Sweeney said the Unk's building was demolished last month. The Daversas hope to get approval from the town after a public hearing next month, break ground this summer and open in time for the 2017 summer season.

The restaurant plan turns on its head the “if you build it, they will come” approach that a town-hired planning firm presented at a public meeting about Mago Point in February.

The town hired two consulting firms using a Small Town Economic Assistance Program grant from the state to develop new zoning regulations that could allow for a more welcoming environment on the Point.

The firms also developed a design plan that includes an elevated boardwalk along Mago Point Way for pedestrian access to any new building.

The goal, planning officials said, is to make Mago Point attractive enough to new businesses that the lure of a vibrant coastal atmosphere would outweigh the cost of building within FEMA regulations.

But even without the regulations in place, Daversa is ready to make his own investment in Mago Point, Sweeney said.

“We’re hoping it’s a catalyst for some of the other property owners down there to invest in their properties,” he said. “It is exactly what the town is looking for.”

The restaurant plan pre-empts the idea of businesses on Mago Point Way lining an elevated boardwalk, which Sweeney said would block the Daversas from capitalizing on their restaurant’s view of the water.

The building would be elevated above the ground — to the tune of about $1 million, Sweeney said — but it would face the water instead of the proposed boardwalk lining the road.

Waterford Planning Director Abby Piersall said she and the consultants are reviewing the boardwalk plan and may amend it.

“What our charge is right now is really to be responsible and flexible and make sure that what we’re putting out there really reflects what the community wants to see,” she said.

She said private investment and the town’s planning efforts should complement each other.

“It’s a two-pronged approach,” Piersall said. “Both sides of that coin are really important.”

Sweeney said Daversa knows that building on a property surrounded by shuttered properties is risky.

“It’s a tremendous gamble,” he said. “But you need someone to take a risk down there, and Paul’s been that guy.”

Daversa is working with the town and supports its efforts to revamp zoning regulations and make Mago Point more open to development, Sweeney said. The smokehouse just comes first, he said.

“You can do all the planning in the world … but until you actually have private dollars invested, those plans aren’t really worth much.”

m.shanahan@theday.com