Maycroft Estate Is Slipping Away, Historic North Haven property is about to go on the market

One big piece of property is about to be up for grabs.

Pronouncing herself "extremely disappointed," North Haven Village Mayor Laura Nolan said with regret last week that Maycroft, the nearly 45-acre former estate of Mary Aldrich, "is going to go public" this week or next.

"This will significantly impair our efforts" to make a municipal purchase, she said. "It's very unfortunate they're not giving the state, county, and town more time."

Ms. Nolan was referring to the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, which was given Maycroft in 1921 by Ms. Aldrich, and an order of nuns called the Teachers of the Children of God, who ran the Tuller School there from 1952 through the early 1990s. The two groups are selling the property, which could fetch anywhere from $15 million to $25 million, and splitting the proceeds to settle a lawsuit.

"They've been in litigation for 10 years, and they can't give us half a year more?" Ms. Nolan asked. "Yes, they've given us the last few months," she said, to put together a government-backed offer with an eye to turning the estate into a park.

"But that's not enough time to get things going with the municipalities, especially with the changes in leadership at the county level" after Steve Levy's election in November as Suffolk County executive, she said.

County involvement in buying the property is particularly important because, as Ms. Nolan put it, "the county usually contributes more" to such a purchase, "but takes longer." A "planning steps resolution" had already passed at the county level, Ms. Nolan said, and newly elected County Legislator Jay Schneiderman had planned to serve on a committee being formed to look at buying Maycroft.

Though discouraged, Ms. Nolan isn't giving up. She is keeping in contact with Southampton Town, through the Community Preservation Fund office headed by Mary Wilson, as well as with State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr.

In December, Mr. Thiele appealed to Bernadette Castro, the head of the State Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, for help in acquiring the 18-room manor house, built in 1885, and its grounds, with woods and wetlands, and preserving them as a historical site and open space.

"We've had no doors shut on us," Ms. Nolan said. "We're also talking to the Nature Conservancy, who are very supportive. It's just that everyone has to go through a review and planning process, and then the negotiation starts."

The village can still seek to buy the property through a broker, and last month Mr. Thiele expressed hope that "a possible public-private partnership" might take shape.

Now, though, as Ms. Nolan put it, "the Tuller School has been given their walking papers for the end of the school year."

The school is Maycroft's sole tenant, with 32 students in prekindergarten and nursery school classes, and its new home could be the Sag Harbor Methodist Church on Madison Street. Sue Daniels, the school's director, approached the church in November about this, and the idea was well received by Tom MacCleod, the pastor, and members of the congregation present at a Nov. 16 meeting.

The Tuller School is closed this week for winter break and Ms. Daniels could not be reached for comment.

Realtor Interest

News of the impending listing spread quickly through the South Fork's real estate community. Rather than scrambling to land a monster commission, however, the realtors - Allan M. Schneider and Associates and Prudential Long Island Realty are in the running - are in a position of having to wait for the call to come from on high.

It will come from the Manhattan law office of McMahon, Martini, and Gallagher, as Tim Gallagher is handling the sale for the diocese and the order. Both groups directed questions to Mr. Gallagher, who didn't return phone calls.

A call answered by Prudential's Sag Harbor office was directed to Michael Daly, who on Tuesday said he'd been having trouble reaching Mr. Gallagher, but hoped to hear something within the week.

One thing slowing the process could be squabbling over the commission. If Maycroft goes for close to the expected $25 million, realtors can most likely forget about getting a standard 6 percent of the take. A lawyer arranging the sale of such a valuable property will ask a broker to take a lesser commission, as low as 2 percent, and they might end up with 4 percent.

"I bet somebody takes it for 5 percent," Carl Marino of Harbor Cove Realty on Main Street in Sag Harbor said on Friday. He, too, had spoken to Mr. Gallagher, and he has had two clients, developers, inquire about Maycroft.

"Anybody could sell that property. But they'll probably give it to the biggest name," he said. "If they were smart they'd give it out to everybody. But it'll be one guy, and he'll cut them short."

"It'd be nice if the village could get ahold of it," Mr. Marino continued. "But if it's developed, it'd probably be a cluster development," in which 50 percent, or more, of a property is preserved as open space, and lots smaller than the current two-acre zoning are placed close together, in this case, for instance, by the water.

"There's 1,000 feet of waterfront there. Those lots will be worth a fortune," Mr. Marino said. "That's deep water, good for docks."