The heart of Fire Island Pine's
commercial district faces an uncertain future as it heads to the
auction block.
According to The New York Times,
roughly 80 percent of the commercial space in the gay mecca is owned
by three investors, Andrew Kirtzman, Seth Weissman and Matthew
Blesso, who bought the property five years ago for $17 million with
dreams of transforming the 650-home community.
But a devastating fire in 2011 and a
drop in attendance have forced the investors to sell. The opening
bid for an auction scheduled for Thursday is $8.5 million.
“I think we had a pretty remarkable
run, given everything that happened,” Kirtzman
told the Times.
“Like a share house, I hope we left it better than we got it.”
Eric von Kuersteiner, who sold the
properties to Kirtzman's FIP Ventures, purchased the properties in
2003 for $7 million and is said to be interested in buying back the
businesses.
After the fire, FIP Ventures rebuilt
the Pavilion club, but despite the celebrated design it never caught
on.
“A lot of people just realized it
wasn't the only place in town,” Bobby Bonnanno, president of the
Fire Island Pines Historical Society, told the Times.
UPDATE: The property sold at auction
for $10.1 million to Ian Reisner, the Times reported. Reisner
also owns the Out NYC, a hotel in Manhattan geared toward the LGBT
community.