The so-called “trade parade” has long been a fixture on the East End, where local workers commute long distances because they cannot afford homes close to their employers.
A magazine publisher is attempting to be part of the solution.
Kirby Marcantonio, who is responsible for both Hamptons Life and Montauk Life magazines, is leading a workforce housing project at 350 Pantigo Road in East Hampton, Bloomberg reported. His project is being posited as an opportunity for employers to help their workers stick around in an expensive market.
Marcantonio envisions a complex with 48 units costing as much as $850,000 for three bedrooms. The vacant site, which Marcantonio acquired for $5 million in April, is already zoned for affordable housing.
But he’ll need the support of the town board to push his plan through, and so far, council members’ reactions to the proposal have been cold. At least one expressed concern about a potential “pay-for-play” aspect of affordable housing, meaning that investors in the project would put their own workers in the new units, and that workers who provide the town’s essential services would be frozen out.
“There’s a very adversarial relationship between the town’s regulatory side and many of its businesses and even some of its citizens,” Marcantonio said of the board’s reaction.
Still, the publisher has offered to modify his proposal to assuage local elected officials. In a memo last month, Marcantonio offered to put aside half of the units for health care workers and 30 percent for municipal and school workers, leaving only a fraction for private businesses to buy.
Marcantonio has the support of local restaurant groups, such as Marc Rowan’s Alchemy Hospitality and Honest Man Hospitality, which operates Nick & Toni’s. Honest Man CEO Mark Smith has had to build housing for his employees so they can live locally.
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Board members have also expressed concern about a rumor that Marcantonio’s proposal is being funded by Rowan, the Apollo Global Management co-founder, who is locked in a dispute with the town over expanding his waterfront restaurant. Marcantonio has publicly denied that Rowan is an investor.
Ultimately, Marcantonio wants to see if the concept can be successful and replicated elsewhere, including in Southampton, where he’s in early discussions about a similar development.