New Owners Of Ponquogue Manor Condos In Hampton Bays Move To Complete Long-Idle Project

Stalled by a bankruptcy that forced a sale, the long-aborning Ponquogue Manor Condominium complex may soon have certificates of occupancy. The Southampton Town Planning Board recently discussed finishing touches for the Foster Avenue, Hampton Bays, project that’s progressed in fits and starts since 2004.

The Planning Board’s objective July 22 was designating two of the 21 condo units as rentals. Under the town’s condo conversion law, if a development is in a waterfront business zone, a percentage of the units must remain available for rent.

“This thing is so old, we need a refresher course,” Planning Board member Robin Long noted.

The project was approved in 2008 and returned for modifications afterward. Assistant Town Planning Director Clare Shea reminded the board members, “you had a lot of questions about the rental units.”

Members wanted to know how the rental scheme would work. Would there be a homeowners association that held the two units, or would they be privately sold and held?

Speaking on behalf of the owner, 68 Foster LLC, attorney Joseph Lombardo said individuals would purchase the units and rent them out individually.

When the condo law was adopted, the rental unit provision was included with the local tourism economy in mind. There was a desire to have waterfront rentals available for visitors. Planning Board member Craig Catalanotto wanted to know what could keep him from buying a unit and renting it to his son year round. Or, mused Board Chair Jacqui Lofaro, could you own a unit, use it all summer, then rent it out for the rest of the year?

With those questions still in the air, the board asked to host a work session for continued discussion in September.

Board member Glorian Berk, a confessed “jobsite junky,” reported she’d seen the units during an open house years ago. The units, she said, are “quite nice.”

With another work session to go over final points of the project on tap, Ms. Lofaro told Mr. Lombardo, “You’re in striking distance of selling units.”

The work to redevelop what was once the motel Allen’s Acres Resort commenced in 2004. Over time, the developer reduced the project down from 24 to 21 condo units spread across four buildings along with six boat slips with access to Shinnecock Bay.

In 2019, the project, which became known as Ponquogue Point, was put up for sale by court order, with an asking price of almost $20 million. According to The Real Estate Report Inc., the 2.7-acre property sold for $17.23 million in August 2020.

The plan for Ponquogue Point envisioned 11 waterfront condos and 10 others on the landward portion of the property. There are two one-bedrooms, 11 two-bedrooms and eight three-bedrooms. Pre-pandemic projected sales prices ranged from $765,000 to $1,852,000, with revenue from selling the boat slips on 350 feet of dock space estimated at $350,000.

Speaking to The Press in 2010, then-owner Michael Ullian said he owned the property since around 1994, but closed the motel in 2007 because summer patrons began to get too rowdy, and the costs of policing the guests and maintaining the facilities were no longer worth it. In September 2008, the defunct motel was damaged in a blaze that the Southampton Town fire marshal’s office investigated as an arson.

The 65-room, two-story motel, located just north of the Ponquogue Bridge, was demolished two years later.