Cavett’s Oceanfront Land Preserved
Joint purchase of 77 acres by town, county, and state for $18 million
 Kate Maier
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(8/7/2008) Dick Cavett, the former television talk-show host, will sell 77 acres of oceanfront Montauk moorland to East Hampton Town, Suffolk County, and the State of New York for preservation.
The $18 million purchase will be the subject of a hearing before the East Hampton Town Board at Town Hall next Thursday night at 7:30.
The property, which contains freshwater wetlands and habitats for rare herptile species such as the southern leopard frog, as well as scenic bluffs along the Atlantic, has long been on the wish list for preservation. It was listed for sale by the Corcoran Group real estate company for $30 million.
The town, county, and state will each pay $6 million for the Cavett property, plus one-third of the closing costs, with East Hampton’s share to come from the community preservation fund. The property will remain in joint ownership, with a mutually agreed upon management plan to be developed.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that we have worked toward this outcome for 20 years,” Nancy Kelley, the executive director of the Nature Conservancy on Long Island, which negotiated the deal with Mr. Cavett and helped arrange for funding, said in a press release.
According to Erik Kulleseid, the deputy director for land acquisition in the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, “the entire 265 acres of the Montauk moorlands has been a state conservation priority for years.”
The Cavett land is adjacent to the 122-acre Amsterdam Beach property, a moorland tract also purchased jointly by the state, county, and town, in 2005.
Scott Wilson, East Hampton Town’s land acquisition manager, said this week that the property, which was upzoned for a minimum of 10-acre residential lots with the adoption of the 2005 town comprehensive plan, could have been developed with four houses, once wetlands and other nonbuildable areas were excluded.
The land abuts the Montauk Association historic district, which encompasses the “Seven Sisters” houses built by the architects McKim, Mead, and White, in a setting landscaped by Frederic Law Olmsted, who later designed New York City’s Central Park and Prospect Park.
The Montauk Association was created as a 220-acre sportsmen’s retreat by Arthur Benson, a Brooklyn financier and real-estate developer who in 1879 bought most of Montauk for $151,000 from descendants of the European settlers who acquired the land from the Montaukett Indians. The houses, completed by 1884, were built on top of the small hills set back from the ocean bluffs amid a clubhouse, laundry, and stable, and trails through the landscape between them.
With his wife, the late Carrie Nye, Mr. Cavett moved to the association property in the late 1960s, living in a house known as Tick Hall. It burned to the ground in 1997, but was rebuilt.
According to Mr. Wilson, Mr. Cavett first offered his acreage to East Hampton and kept if off the market for more than a year while the possibility of preservation was pursued. The Nature Conservancy took the lead.
Extensive freshwater wetlands on the site had to be identified and flagged before appraisers hired by the town could set a value, also taking time, Mr. Wilson said. “He gave us over a year to get all of our ducks in a row. He clearly turned down higher offers.”
When the preservation plan is finalized, the acreage will join about 2,400 acres of other open space on Montauk’s eastern edge, which is protected by the Nature Conservancy as well as state, county, and town purchases, including, besides Amsterdam Beach, the Sanctuary, the Warhol Preserve, and Shadmoor and Montauk Point State Parks.