Old Real Estate Ad for Marsden Lots Surfaces on Social Media, Causing Frenzy

An old real estate ad for the sale of the Marsden Street properties in Sag Harbor — the ones the Sag Harbor School District made a failed attempt to purchase just last month — surfaced on social media early last week, causing a frenzy as many residents believed the lots had been listed for sale again.

The land — five lots totaling 4.13 acres — is owned by Marsden Street Properties LLC. Pat Trunzo III, who is an owner of that LLC, said when reached by phone on Tuesday, June 13, that the lots were not, in fact, for sale.

He said the online ad, which lists Darius Narizzano of Saunders Real Estate, is an old advertisement. When reached by phone the same day, Narizzano said he does not currently have that listing. Lori MacGarva, another Saunders agent who is listed on the ad, confirmed it was old and that the lots are not currently for sale.

Trunzo said the Saunders ad is more than a year old, and is no longer active. He said his plans for the land have remained unchanged since the community voted down a proposition included on the school budget vote for the district to acquire the property in May with a combination of $3.25 million in capital reserve funds and a $6 million bond.

“I have not listed the property with anybody,” he said. “That’s an old listing that was never taken down, so it’s misleading.”

He added that he has been working on a few final details for an application to build homes on the property, which he said he will submit soon to the Sag Harbor Village Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review.

The ad sparked a frenzy online because many of the residents who had voted against the district acquiring the property — in what was a narrow 1,156-1,081 vote — have said publicly that they would like to see Sag Harbor Village officials ask Southampton Town to consider purchasing the property with Community Preservation Fund money, and then develop the property into a passive park for residents to enjoy.

Earlier in the spring, the Sag Harbor School District had been in talks to jointly purchase the property with a $6 million contribution from the CPF, but when that deal fell apart, the district pursued the purchase on its own, leading to the proposition, that ultimately failed, on the May budget vote.

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman has said publicly multiple times that the town would not pursue a purchase of the property as long as the district was still interested in it. The town is currently pursuing the viability of purchasing development rights at Mashashimuet Park with CPF money. Whether or not that comes to fruition remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Trunzo will need to go before and get approval from the Sag Harbor Village land use boards to get authorization to build what he has planned for the properties. Several years ago, he submitted plans for homes, but those plans did not pan out because of opposition Trunzo faced from the village Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review, which sent him back to the drawing board multiple times because it deemed the size of the proposed houses to be too large for the historic district.