Half-Built Massive Meadow Lane Residence Could Be Demolished

Progress on a nearly 18,000-square-foot compound under construction on Meadow Lane in Southampton Village has been nonexistent for the past six months, and some say that the owner, listed as Meadowcore LLC, has plans to demolish the home and start over.

The Moroccan-inspired residence located on an 8.1-acre oceanfront parcel at 1320 Meadow Lane is two stories high and has numerous arches over windows and entrances along the front facade. The roof, though flat in areas, has pyramid and conical peaks, and the house itself has a sandstone appearance to it.

The property the house sits on is zoned R80, or 2-acre zoning, and the residential structure is considered to be a single-family dwelling with both attached and detached garages, a tennis court and a 1,700-square-foot swimming pool between the house and the ocean.

The 8.1-acre parcel, alone, cost the homeowner $37,127,900 to purchase, and the estimated cost of building the home was $19 million.

Building department documents principally refer to the owner as Meadowcore LLC, but on a couple of the forms the owner was listed as Thomas E. Sandell, then crossed out with a blue pen and replaced with the name of the LLC. Mr. Sandell is the founder of the Manhattan hedge fund Sandell Asset Management and, according to Forbes, has a net worth of $1.4 billion.

Along with the cost of land and construction, a $247,500 building permit from the Southampton Village Building Department—which, according to staff members at the building department, is 1.25 percent of the cost of construction—was a sticking point early in the process. In fact, in a letter on April 9, 2014, Southampton-based attorney Anthony Pasca told village officials that the fee is “an illegal tax.”

The project began in 2012. Since then, records show, the architect changed from Manhattan-based architect John Kirk to John David Rose, who is based in Southampton Village. However, Mr. Rose notified the building department on September 26, 2018, that he was no longer the architect of record.

Now, Christian Barletta of Southampton-based construction firm Sandpebble Project Management is listed as the “construction project manager.”

Calls to Mr. Barletta and Mr. Rose seeking the status of the project were not immediately returned.

But some construction experts in the area, including Southampton Village Building Inspector Chris Talbot, have heard rumors that the owner of the home is considering its demolition.

Mr. Talbot said on Friday that the home was roughly 60 percent complete, adding that inspections on framing and plumbing have been completed.

If the owner of the home decides to demolish what has already been erected, he will need to obtain a demolition permit from the building department—no application has been submitted up to this point.

Still, whether or not demolition is in the future remains to be seen.

“There’s been no final decision as to what is going to happen,” Southampton Village-based attorney Gil Flanagan, who represents Meadowcore LLC, said on Friday.

Mr. Flanagan did not deny that demolition was on the table.

He added that there was an issue with the contractor, which is why the project is currently on hold. Mr. Flanagan would not say who the contractor for the project was, as there was pending litigation.

Taconic Builders, which has offices in Manhattan and Southampton among other locations, was listed as the builder for the project. Calls to the company were left unanswered on Monday.

Mr. Talbot said large residences like the one at 1320 Meadow Lane are nothing new to Southampton Village, as many homes of that size have been built for more than a century. But as far as future plans for 1320 Meadow Lane, he said, wait and see.