Montauk Paid Off Huge to Family Businesses

Montauk is changing fast. Old traditional family businesses are either up for sale or have been sold for millions. Locals never blame the families for cashing in big time, but they do resent the folks who are paying top dollar to buy into Montauk.

Many locals believe the trend started in 2007 when Louis French sold the Panoramic View for over $40M. Just last year it was reported that it was resold to Gurneys for almost $70M. Now that’s real money.

Also in 2007, The Montauk Yacht Club was sold to Island Global Yachting for $30M. At the time the sale was a big story in the N.Y. Times.

Then in 2009, The Lakeside Inn was sold for over $1M but was refurbished so that the total cost of opening the now famed The Surf Lodge was estimated to be around $3.5M. No doubt they have made that money back by now.

When the Ruschmeyer family sold some property and a building to create Second House Tavern, many people were sad, but the millions the family received was the envy of every Montauk Motel owner. Now once again the location is named Ruschmeyers and is in play and for sale with the amount again in the millions of dollars.

Then around the same time the family that owned Salivars for years cashed out receiving a reported $3.3M after the death of the founder. His heirs most likely did not like working all night every night.

Next there was the Ronjo right in the village with the iconic statue in front being sold for $3.4M in 2013! That same year well-respected Alice Houseknecht sold the East Deck for $15M and went from cleaning motel rooms to enjoying being a Montauk millionaire.

2014-2015 saw the loved historic Duryea Dock sold by the revered Duryea Family for an undisclosed sum, in 2014 the property was listed for $5.9M. No doubt it sold for more than that. The Duryea’s have always been very private about their financial affairs. Later in 2015, it was Jimmy Hewitt cashing out by selling the iconic Shagwong for anywhere between $3M to $5M. Also sold around that time was the historic Trails End Restaurant, that asking price was in the neighborhood of $3M.

Finally there are reports the Gosman’s want to cash out of their historic dock complex for a reported $45M!

As you can see Montauk, the “sleepy blue-collar fishing town” has created millions of windfall dollars for the local owners. With the new owners of these businesses having paid well over $200M there is a new “gentrified” class in Montauk. The town board is now taking steps to quiet things down. The folks who laid out the $200M must be alarmed seeing the East Hampton Town Board take steps to harness the wildness that brought value to all these Montauk properties.

In 2004 when I moved into Montauk, the old saying was, “There are no rules in Montauk.” Now there clearly are rules in Montauk. It looks like maybe somebody wants to control things differently then when they owned everything. Reports come out weekly how much more quieter and in control things in Montauk are. I would love to see how the bottom lines of these businesses are. Less people make a safer and less unruly Montauk. Who would not want that, except maybe folks staring at their bottom line shrink?