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October 28, 2009
Bust Out the Sand Chair! Ratner Buys Long Beach Spread for $2 M.
NY Observer
by Max Abelson
Is it time to start calling Bruce Ratner the "Flamingo Kid?"
...last month, he was said to be selling his 4,500-square-foot, Francis Fleetwood–designed Montauk house to an art dealer for $10 million. Leaving behind 7 acres, Mr. Ratner reportedly wanted something less expensive.
He found it.
According to a source, he bought up a relatively modest three-bedroom oceanfront house off Long Beach’s Arizona Avenue. He paid $2 million to a Manhattan couple, Seema Kalia and hedge fund manager Vedula Murti.
...Listing broker Susan Solomon would not comment on the deal. “It’s an oceanfront piece of property and, you know—it’s a big piece of property and it’s on the ocean,” she said. “What do you want me to tell you?” The place looks cozy, but probably needs real renovation. “You can come in and do a little; you can come in and do a lot,” the broker said. “You want to knock it down, you can do that.”
Might Mr. Ratner, who spent $6,965,000 last year on an East 62nd Street brownstone, build something Yards-proportioned? “If somebody wants to knock that house down,” Ms. Solomon said, “they have to build something by the code.”
NoLandGrab: Unless, of course, his good friends at the Empire State Development Corporation override local zoning.
Posted by eric at October 28, 2009 11:32 PM