| Issue #31, October 27, 2006 |
ANOTHER AUCTION TO TRY TO SELL THIS HOUSE
By Christian McLean
This is your chance. It’s the big one. The most controversial house in Sag Harbor is going back up for auction. After last year’s live auction on the steps of Sag Harbor Municipal Building, where fifty or so spectators watched as the famous Morpurgo house was put on the blocks with an initial bid of $1.5 million and didn’t receive a single offer, it was placed on eBay for $19 million — yes, that’s 19, not 1.9 — again with no takers. Currently, the property is offered on Yahoo Auctions at a starting bid of $15,000,000 and a Buy It Now price of $100,000,000 (making it the most expensive house for sale in the Hamptons. And that’s just for the house, not the land). But this Friday the Morpurgo sisters, Helga and Annselm, will be at it again. By the time you read this, it may be all over. The house may have been sold right out from under your nose. Then again, maybe it’s not too late. This fourth auction will take place Friday, October 27, at 11 a.m. After another year of dereliction, the house, which has a traceable lineage all the way back to 1763, has been dropped to $1.1 million. Not exactly a steal for the 1/4 acre property on Union Street just behind the John Jermain Library.
I attended last year’s live auction. It was very real and serious. All the local papers, and even the New York Times, were there for the event. A man stood on the steps of the Municipal Building in the center of Sag Harbor Village and a crowd slowly grew. One of the sisters attended and chatted freely with the spectators. Everyone wanted to find out if the house would really sell. No one could imaging a house in such terrible shape would get a bid, but there was talk about a sealed offer and a secret buyer. I think everyone wanted to know if it was true.
Across the street, construction was halted so the audience could hear what the man on the steps had to say. He addressed the crowd, explaining that there was an opening bid of $1.5 million. Then he waited to see if there were any takers. The crowd began to look at one another, hoping someone would raise their hand, but after only a few minutes, the bidding was closed. Not a single person had come to actually bid on the property.
I fear the same situation will happen on Friday. The house, at least from the road, looks as if it is crumbling. If restored, a cost that the Morpurgos estimate at $3 million, the home would be beautiful, but the project would take several years to complete and there are fully-restored houses for sale, closer to town for less than $4 million that you can move right into.
There’s more to the sale than just purchasing the house. The place is currently the future site of the Morpurgo Center for the Arts and Sciences. According to the website auction, the buyer does not actually get the land. If the buyer chooses to restore the building on site, then the Morpugos will lease the building envelope to the buyer for a $1 a year, but if you want to move the house to another place, then they will build this Center on the property. Whether this is the case with regard to the live auction is anybody’s guess.
If you’ve got some time of Friday morning, if you’ve got nowhere to go and are looking to catch up with some friends in Sag Harbor, you should check out the auction. You never know, you may just find yourself bidding on a little piece of Sag Harbor history, and at a 99% markdown from the Internet price, it seems like a steal to me.
 |
