A partnership led by a South Boston bar owner and condominium developer will pay $5.15 million for 51 acres in Oak Bluffs once planned as a luxury home development. Paul Adamson, a real estate developer who also owns Shenannigans, a South Boston pub, was the high bidder at a foreclosure auction June 26, held on the property off County Road formerly owned by Corey Kupersmith. When the sale is complete, Oak Bluffs will collect a substantial windfall in the form of back taxes and penalties, the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank will collect a fee to preserve open space, and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission will realize a significant contribution toward affordable housing.
Mr. Adamson, along with partners Chris Sage and Malcom Barber, said they often vacation on Martha’s Vineyard and now intend to spend more time here in the near future. “There are four or five lots going to friends that want to live here,” Mr. Adamson said. “Families that hang around together in Boston, now we’ll hang around on the Vineyard.”
Mr. Sage is related by marriage to former selectman and MVC member Richard Combra Sr., who advised the buyer’s group on the sale.
The purchase includes 20 buildable lots and two open space lots once planned as the Preserve at the Woodlands, partially improved but never built. Mr. Adamson said the rest of the lots will be sold individually.
In addition to the $5.15 million winning bid, the buyers must satisfy all town tax liens. Back taxes owed on the property, along with penalties and interest, amount to approximately $385,628, according to town officials. The land bank will collect its standard fee, two per cent of the purchase price, or $103,000.
Under special conditions of the sale, the seller, a subsidiary of the Patten Companies, must clear all permitting and licensing issues with the town of Oak Bluffs and the commission. That will involve untangling a condition of the original decision concerning affordable housing mitigation.
When Mr. Kupersmith won the approval of the MVC, the affordable housing mitigation component was not spelled out in the decision, but outlined in a memo establishing a homeowners association for the future property owners, according to MVC chairman Fred Hancock. It called for a $10,000 payment to be deposited in a trust controlled by the homeowners association, every time one of the 26 original individual lots were sold. Homeowners would also pay an annual $500 fee to the trust. Proceeds from the trust would be used for affordable housing in Oak Bluffs.
“Before any lots could be sold, that was supposed to be finalized and approved by the commission’s counsel,” said Mr. Hancock. “That never happened.”
Mr. Hancock said any modification of that arrangement would require a vote of the full commission. “I don’t think there would be any objection to it,” Mr. Hancock said. “We’re open to any kind of solution as long as there is an affordable housing contribution. As long as the money comes through, I don’t see us being too picky.” Mr. Hancock also said, however, that he thinks the current commission is not likely to be interested in setting up the kind of trust outlined in the original memo.
About 20 prospective buyers gathered under a tent at noontime last Friday for the auction. Auctioneer Justin Manning of J.J. Manning Auctioneers asked for a bid of $8 million to get the auction started, but found no takers. Harry Patten of the Florida development firm Patten Companies opened the bidding at $5 million. A subsidiary of the Patten Companies held a controlling interest in the property, after buying the mortgage from People’s United Bank in Connecticut, which had begun foreclosure proceedings. A company spokesman said earlier if no buyers offered an acceptable bid, Patten intended to buy the property back and sell individual lots at auction. Local buyers were on hand, hoping for that possibility. But when Mr. Adamson raised the opening bid to $5.15 million, Mr. Patten urged the auctioneer to sell, and the auction was over.
“It’s a beautiful piece of property,” Mr. Patten said. “It’s time for us to move on. I think it’s going to be a great asset for Oak Bluffs.”
Also as a contingency of the sale, the seller promised to deliver ownership of the roadways and an additional open space lot, at no further charge, at the closing.
The property was at the center of a divisive political battle beginning in the early 2000s when Mr. Kupersmith, a Connecticut developer, tried unsuccessfully to win approval for a private luxury golf club at the Southern Woodlands. A compromise plan emerged in 2004 when the land bank bought the majority of the property for conservation; a subdivision was allowed on the remaining 51 acres but never built.
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