Backstory: Southampton Town Buys 1950 Meadow Lane

A big oceanfront mansion out on Billionaire’s Row along Meadow Lane in Southampton is being sold to the Town. Currently it is in contract. Before the closing, however it is to be torn down by the seller. We’re talking about an 8,900-square-foot 11-bedroom 12-bath contemporary built on 2.2 acres with 172 feet on the ocean and a boardwalk to the beach in the front and a swimming pool in the back overlooking the bay.

The money for the purchase, which is $25.8 million, is largely coming from a 2.7% tax – called the CPF fund — which the Town collects whenever a large property in the town gets sold. So the purchase of this, the largest “teardown” ever, is being paid for by the billionaire neighbors who live here. Whether they like it or not.

The Town, the new owner, will leave the wooden walkway to the beach, but will expect to see a flat surface where the house and swimming pool were. They intend, as the old Joni Mitchell song says – to “pave paradise, put in a parking lot.” And the lot will be used by the townspeople to park their cars and walk out the wooden boardwalk onto the beach for a swim or sunbathe at the ocean. No daytrippers and no out-of-towners permitted. It’s a huge victory for local Southampton residents who in recent years have had fewer and fewer places to go to park at the ocean. And it is a very brave thing for the town officials to do, who have overcome all objections on Billionaire’s Row in creating such a situation.

The seller of the property is Frances Katz and it is a brave thing for her to have done too.

This mansion was built in 1983 and was the first one built in this section of what had become Billionaire’s Row. At the time, a helicopter pad, still in use today, came into existence on Meadow Lane just 1,000 feet to the west. Very noisy.

A further 1,000 feet to the west was the beachfront county park, which did a modest business in accommodating campers but was getting busier and busier.

Meanwhile, there was Road F, an entry road 1,000 feet to the west of this new home that allowed local people to drive out wagons or cars onto the beach as fishermen, campers and picnickers since 1683 as a result of a British patent. Other than all that it was just wilderness.

It is not clear if Frances Katz had built the house in 1983, but by 1995 she was the owner and was part of a group of these new billionaires and millionaires filing a lawsuit. Nothing could be done about the county park or the helipad. But there was a hope that locals driving on the beach could be stopped. The lawsuit declared the fishermen, campers and picnickers to be a nuisance spoiling their view. The courts ruled otherwise. More rulings in future years referred to the 1995 suit as the “Katz Action” and upheld the locals every time.

The last failing lawsuit was in 2022.

According to Ms. Katz’s real estate lawyer, she is very happy to have brought this new situation into place. Her children and grandchildren will be able to see where their families raised them here. Even if it is now a parking lot.

It also was quite a good investment. The property was originally sold for $300,000 or so. But that’s just what’s happened with real estate prices in the Hamptons over the years.