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The property at 40 Bowden Square in Southampton Village, home to the Southampton Publick House, has been sold.
Publick House owner Don Sullivan said on Tuesday that his former landlord, Garden City-based Pascal Associates Inc., sold the property to Bridgehampton Equities earlier this month, and that he is now negotiating a new lease with that company.
Mr. Sullivan said he did not know what Bridgehampton Equities may have in mind for property, but founder Jason Zimmerman explained Wednesday that the firm had actually purchased the site on behalf of the DiNoto Group, based in Woodbury. Mr. Zimmerman said that Bridgehampton Equities will work with the DiNoto Group to keep Publick House there in the short term, while, in the long term, the firm works to “dust off a diamond and preserve Southampton history” by renovating the building.
“My plan there would be to bring it back to its original glory,” Mr. Zimmerman said.
Mr. Sullivan added that he did not know how much the property sold for, but it was “more than I was willing to pay,” he said.
A representative from Pascal Associates did not return a call seeking information about the selling price. According to Southampton Town records, Pascal Associates Inc. had purchased the property from Sfuzzi Inc. in 1996 for $950,000.
In case he cannot reach a new lease agreement with Bridgehampton Equities, Mr. Sullivan said, he may have to relocate the restaurant and brewery.
“If I need to move the business elsewhere, I will,” he said, adding that a new lease could be short-term or long-term, “depending on what we can work out with the new property owner.”
Mr. Sullivan added that he did consider buying the property himself, but said the asking price was “unrealistic” for him, because the 100-year-old structure requires a lot of capital improvements, as Mr. Zimmerman noted. “The building needs a tremendous amount of work. Between that and the cost of real estate, it just didn’t make sense for us to purchase the property,” he explained.
“You can knock this building down and start over, or put well into a million dollars into this place, and not be even close,” he added.
The Southampton Publick House opened in 1996 and has since become popular for food, drinks and brewing beer. According to its website, it is one of the most award-winning breweries in the country, holding several different honors including top brewpub in 2003 from Beer Advocate Magazine. The brewpub began distributing beer throughout the rest of Long Island and New York City in 1998, and then went national in 2005.
And before it was Publick House, it was Herb McCarthy’s restaurant since the 1930s, and, prior to that, the Hampton Inn, which served as a famous speakeasy during the Prohibition era.
Mr. Sullivan assured, though, that the Southampton Publick House is not going anywhere.
“We will definitely be an ongoing business,” he said. “The building was sold—the business was not.”
Alyssa Melillo on Oct 27, 2015