Jeremy Morton Appears to Buy Sag Harbor Commercial Parcels

Two high-profile parcels on Sag Harbor’s waterfront are trading hands from a developer to a well-known East End restaurateur.

Jeremy Morton snapped up the parcels at 2 Main Street and 20 Long Island Avenue in the Hamptons community, 27East reported. The purchase price wasn’t clear, but they were listed for a combined asking price of $34 million.

Morton, the man behind East End eateries including Rick’s Crabby Cowboy Café and Ruschmeyer’s in Montauk and Morty’s Oyster Stand in Amagansett, refused to confirm or deny the acquisition to 27East.

“People are buying properties in the Hamptons every day,” he told the publication. “Is there some kind of obligation for the media to write about it?”

It’s unclear what Morton would do with the parcels, though a restaurant seems to be as good a guess as any.

Compass’ Hal Zwick and Jeffery Sztorc held the listing, which supposedly drew numerous inquiries. Zwick did not comment on the sale.

Adam Potter, the Friends of Bay Street leader on a difficult mission to build affordable housing in Sag Harbor, paid $13.1 million for the Long Island Avenue property in 2020. Afterwards, an investment group linked to Potter purchased the neighboring 2 Main Street for $18 million.

Potter wanted to sell the parcel back to the Southampton Community Preservation Fund, planning to knock the existing building down and expand Steinbeck Park. But the negotiations for that deal fell through.

There was also local opposition to using any of the parcels for a theater, which was part of Potter’s plan. By the end of 2022, the writing was on the wall for Friends of Bay Street’s future at the site: The nonprofit put the properties back on the market last January.

— Holden Walter-Warner