The article “Bay Street Theater Says It May Have No Choice But To Move Out Of Sag Harbor” [27east.com, May 25] leaves several troublesome questions unanswered.
1. Neither Bay Street Executive Director Tracy Mitchell nor Friends of Bay Street Chairman and real estate investor Adam Potter ever refer to or thank their “donors.” The reason, which is inescapable, is that they have no donors; instead, they have investors, a syndicate of around 20 wealthy folks who aim to buy up most of Sag Harbor’s Main Street with a war chest of about $75 million.
2. Once the syndicate owns most of the Main Street buildings, they will be positioned to raise rents on everyone. No one will be left to offer local merchants better rent pricing. This is a monopoly, which means “price fixing.” And that’s illegal.
3. As current businesses depart in the face of skyrocketing rents, the syndicate will bring in members of the Shops at Time Warner Center, like Louis Vuitton, et al. The tycoon behind these real estate transactions would be a likely candidate to serve as head of the syndicate. Not saying that’s so, just wondering.
4. Once all these high-end shops have put down roots in Sag Harbor, the syndicate — and this is audacious — is going to “flip” the entire village. Meaning selling it to a higher bidder, probably a hedge fund.
And, by the way, the so-called “nonprofit” named Friends of Bay Street? Well, it has only one director (Adam Potter) and seems primed to convert into a for-profit corporation at a moment’s notice.
The firewall against Bay Street Theater’s entanglement with these wheeler-dealers is the board of directors of that nonprofit. Where are they? How about their chairman writing a letter to the editor?
Duncan Darrow
Founder & Chairman
Fighting Chance
Sag Harbor
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