The historic and iconic commercial district of New York's longtime gay resort Fire Island Pines, which includes the Pavilion nightclub, several restaurants, a hotel and retail spaces, goes up for auction today in Islip with a suggested starting bid of $8.5 million, less than half of the nearly $20 million it sold for to Andrew Kirtzman, Seth Weissman and Matthew Blesso in 2010.
See the auction page here.
Several familiar parties are said to be vying for the property, including the former owner. The sale may be a letdown for Mr. Kirtzman and his partners, but the Pines itself has remained popular even as homosexuality has found acceptance in places like wedding chapels and prime time television, and on beaches from Montauk to Cape May.
“It's a beautiful, glamorous place, a place that was central to gay liberation,” said Jay Pagano, president of the Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association. “That's still very important to the people who lived the struggle, and to the people who benefited from it.”
Among those who have expressed interest in the auction, according to the NYT, is the manager of the adjacent Sip-N-Twirl nightclub, OUTNYC Hotel owner Ian Reisner, and Eric von Kuersteiner, a Manhattan entrepreneur who owned the property from 2003 to 2010.
Stay tuned for news on the outcome of today's auction…
