The Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation and the Peconic Land Trust are urgently appealing to “several high-end donors” to raise $15 million toward the $36-million purchase price of 38.3 acres of the Wainscott Commercial Center, the executive director of the former group told members of the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee on Saturday.
East Hampton Town’s intention to acquire the land, representing a little more than half of a 70.5-acre former sand mine, was disclosed by the town board in September. Of the land the town plans to purchase, all but five acres would be used for parks, recreation, and open space. The remainder would be set aside for yet-to-be-determined municipal purposes.
Weeks after the announcement, however, Scott Wilson, the town’s director of land acquisition and management, said during a public hearing on the matter that the two organizations must raise $15 million in private funding by Dec. 31, and that the seller, John Tintle, retains the right to extinguish the contract if the money is not secured by that date.
While a portion of the 38.3 acres “will be set aside for future municipal uses,” Hersey Egginton, chairman of the Wainscott C.A.C., told members and guests at the committee’s virtual meeting, “the bulk of the property will be allowed to return to its natural state, assuming that the transaction goes through.”
The purchase is in contract, said Councilwoman Cate Rogers, the town board’s liaison to the committee.
Kim Quarty, who was named executive director of the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation last year after spending 17 years as the Peconic Land Trust’s director of conservation planning, told the committee that the planned acquisition represents “a very rare opportunity to protect so much land in the Georgica Pond watershed.” It is important to all residents within the roughly 4,000-acre watershed, she said, because “whatever happens on the land ends up in the groundwater and in our watershed.”
It is true, she said, that “there is a contingency in the contract to bring in private funds in the amount of $15 million.” She added, “my understanding is that if this private fund-raising effort is not met, then the seller has the opportunity to opt out of the contract.”
Her current and former organizations are “having conversations with several high-end donors who can give major gifts,” Ms. Quarty said. “We don’t have the actual commitment yet of the $15 million. We’re asking people to sign pledges that we’ll be collecting in 2027.” The structure and timing of the purchase are “very challenging,” she said, but “this is such an important effort that we’re doing everything we can to meet this goal.”
The groups are in discussions with “20-some-odd” people with “extreme capacity for giving,” Ms. Quarty said. She declined to disclose an amount to which donors have committed thus far. “It’s a lot of conversations back and forth and educating them about the contract and the outcome,” she said, “so it takes a while. We do have a lot of promising prospects, though.”
Kirby Marcantonio, who has sought to acquire land on which to construct workforce housing, asked about the 19 acres at the north end of the property “which is going to remain in Mr. Tintle’s hands” and which the owner plans to develop. “How does developing the [19] acres at the north into industrial land meet with the goals of preservation as expressed by Peconic and by you?” he asked. “And how do you disclose the actual future purpose of those [19] acres to your donors? Or are they under the understanding that this is going to be the end of industrial uses on that property?”
“We can’t control what private property owners do with their own properties,” was Ms. Quarty’s answer. “We can just take advantage of the opportunities that are provided to us.” Thirty-eight acres will be preserved, she said. “Any little bit helps. . . . We might not acquire those 20 acres right now, but down the road, who knows?”
Mr. Tintle, Mr. Marcantonio noted, was quoted in The Star as intending to develop the 19 acres he will retain. He added that he had offered Mr. Tintle $5 million for five acres, an offer that, he said, had been rebuffed. “There must be a lot more communication going on in terms of this transaction than simply a contract,” he said.
“I think you’re reading into it,” Ms. Quarty said. “In my years of preservation, the major thing that John Halsey has taught me is patience and persistence,” she said of the Peconic Land Trust’s founder and president. “Some of our biggest conservation projects have taken 20-some-odd years. We never know what’s going to happen down the road. We just have to get the pieces of the puzzle we can when they’re available.”
Ms. Rogers noted that the Wainscott hamlet plan adopted by the town board in 2020, “after recommendations by many people that are on this committee, has pretty much what’s happening there right now: some industrial use, some municipal use. . . . It’s not really different than what was perceived as the best use of this property by the people in Wainscott and across the town.”
Lori Anne Czepiel of the committee remembered a Covid-19 pandemic-era suggestion that part of the land be dedicated to something akin to “what Dia Beacon is to the Hudson Valley.” Dia Beacon is a contemporary art museum housed in a former Nabisco box-printing factory along the Hudson River in Beacon. “The thought came up because we, of course, have a Dia in Bridgehampton.” The Dia Bridgehampton museum opened in 1983 as the Dan Flavin Art Institute and was later renovated under the late sculptor Dan Flavin’s direction.
Wainscott also has the Tripoli Gallery, Ms. Czepiel said. “I wanted to throw this into the mix,” she told Ms. Quarty, “when you’re talking to people who might be interested in contributing. Some of these foundations could potentially be a source of economic resources for us, either for the financing condition or for go-forward obligations. I think that would also be a nice way to use Wainscott as the ‘front porch’ to the rest of East Hampton, and utilize some of this space to recognize our longstanding artists’ history.”
