On the Block Again: Auction of Vacant Coast Guard Housing in Westhampton Set for August

On August 7, long-vacant units that were once home to Coast Guard families in Westhampton will go on the auction block. The bidding for the entire 14-acre site starts at $5 million.

That might be a little too rich for the Town of Southampton’s blood.

The town had hoped to buy the site to house affordable housing, and while an initial offer to buy it was rejected, officials haven’t given up hope.

“We’re trying to figure this out,” Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said. “We made an offer and got rejected. I thought it was a good offer.”

The offer, which lawmakers refrained from disclosing, was based on an appraisal the town authorized in 2021.

By law, the town is bound by its appraisal and can’t offer more, even as participants in the online auction. Other legal hurdles could stand in the way as well.

If the town’s bid is accepted, according to the supervisor, the town would have to move forward with taking ownership, according to the auction’s rules. But, officials can’t commit to a purchase without holding public hearings and undergoing its own municipal process.

“It’s a weird situation,” the lawmaker said.

Still, he feels an outside developer could also confront obstacles. “They’d have to go through a subdivision process,” he said, “and who knows what they’d end up with.

“We were hoping the federal government, knowing what we’re trying to do with affordable homes, they’d work with us,” he added. “But they seem to feel they just want the highest number they could get.”

Located off Stewart Avenue, the property is home to 24 duplexes, ranging in size from 1,948 to 5,917 square feet, plus two single-family units, and an office/workshop, according to the auction website. Built in 1977, it underwent renovations in 2011. Half the units underwent asbestos remediation, half did not.

First word of a potential auction circulated in 2018, but there had been talk of selling the property for years prior to that. The COVID pandemic stalled the move, according to Paul Hughes of the Public Affairs Office of the United States General Services Administration. He said the property was offered to the town “at fair market value” in 2022.

Overall, the site has a rundown appearance. The grass is brown and siding was falling off a building right at the entrance, a stone crumbles from a wall identifying the development as a Coast Guard property. The gate to the development is secured with a bungee cord.

Hughes said most of the units are habitable, but Southampton Town Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara acknowledged that many units were worse for wear. She said that if the town wins the auction, officials would most likely partner with a nonprofit organization to make nice, affordable units.

Town Housing Director Kara Bak affirmed that money from the recently approved Community Housing Fund could assist in a project there.

“There’s no plan for it to be rentals,” McNamara emphasized. “We always looked for individual homeownership.”

That promise may provide a measure of relief for neighbors in the Hampton West development just across Stewart Avenue, should the town’s bid win. Since word of an auction first circulated five years ago, they’ve feared an absentee landlord would purchase the units and rent them as low-income dwellings.

“We’re really concerned about the impact to the community. How is this going to affect us?” Sharon Frost, vice president of the Hampton West Residents Association, said this week.

She believes people were still living in the staff houses up until two weeks ago. Then a sign advertising the auction went up and, according to Frost, “Nobody knows what’s going on.”

Frost said she and the association have been watching the property since 2011, when discussions about selling the surplus housing first began.

An individual, first-time homebuyer program could mesh well and “protect the integrity of the neighborhood,” Frost said.

The worry for neighbors is an absentee landlord who rents the homes through the federally subsidized Section 8 housing program. Longtime residents have been through that before.

Speaking to The Press when the auction news first surfaced in 2018, the association’s president, Forest Markowitz, recalled buying his home in 1979. It was a time when homes were rented by absentee landlords and the neighborhood struggled with crime.

While neighbors are steeped in concern about who might buy the property, affordable housing advocate Michael Daly of East End YIMBY sees a potential for easing the crushing crisis in affordable housing.

“The modest, underused, and aging Coast Guard housing near Gabreski Airport has been a much sought-after commodity for years by developers and Southampton Town for potential development of community housing,” he said.

“While East End YIMBY sees the dramatic need for more community housing east of the Shinnecock Canal, we hope that whoever wins the auction bid will either renovate the existing homes or create new homes for our local teachers, firefighters, EMTs, health care workers, seniors and young people who grew up on the East End and wish to stay here near family, friends and their jobs.”