REAL ESTATE

(Page 8 of 9)

The purchase involved a pond-front property, the Samponaro estate, owned by a long-time Association family. The actual Samponaro house, still standing on about 3.5 acres, is a fine example of beach-cottage architecture, but is in no way a trophy house by today's standards in today's dollars.

The house abuts another property that they once owned. That was a five-acre piece of raw land that had the incredible pleasure of fronting on both the pond and the ocean in a unique juxtaposition of water frontage. At the time, nearly 10 years ago, it was in high demand and sold for a then whopping $7.2 million. The buyer was the former Goldman Sachs vice chairman John Thornton, whose family has summered in the Association for decades.

To gain some perspective, we sought out the fellow who brokered the first Samponaro deal, the inimitable John Golden, formerly of Sotheby's but more recently with Prudential Douglas Elliman. Reached for comment on this latest sale, he wouldn't say much and didn't feel obliged to comment on the old Thornton purchase, either. He did reveal, however, that Thornton acted as a sort of white knight by purchasing the Samponaro land that was held in a trust. By buying the property he kept it from further development under other hands since he had no specific plans to build on it himself, which 10 years later is still the case. At issue was the fact that the land fronted on the little beach club shack, and it would have been a shame to sully that pristine part of the Association with a house looming over the landscape. Golden also pointed out that Thornton was in no way obligated to keep the land undeveloped; it could be built on or sold at any time. Might there be an irresistible offer in the wings from a new owner next door to try to acquire that parcel, too?

We might never know. A few days after learning about the potential sale of the Samponaro estate, I heard that the deal was in the floundering stage, a term most often used by brokers to mean big trouble. At issue is the buildability of a McMansion on a site riddled with restrictions due to zoning issues—namely wetlands and other foibles related to building near the pond.