If you’re gay and living in NYC (or just about in any point in the U.S.) you may have heard of New York’s summertime gay getaway spot, Fire Island. The island is a skinny little sandbar home to several beachy communities off the southern coast of Long Island, NY about 90 minutes from Manhattan. Cars aren’t allowed on the island, you’ve got to take a ferry to get there, and once there, your main options for housing are vacation rental homes.
For many gay male New Yorkers, the Fire Island Pines community is a beloved place. It’s almost become a gay fantasy-land, celebrated since the 1950s as an almost mythical haven of sun, sand, sex and a rousing social scene. Or if the notion of an all-gay, nearly all-male beach enclave sounds terrifying to you, maybe it’s a tired cliche.
Nevertheless, this spring gay New Yorkers are abuzz about the fact that the several harbor-front businesses which make up what would be considered the “town” section of the Fire Island Pines have all been recently purchased by a trio of young(ish) NYC businessmen. What are their plans? Will this affect the summer travel season? Will boys still be dancing at Low Tea? Will the character of the community change?
According to new stories found on Gawker and The New York Times, yes and no. The three new owners (Andrew Kirtzman, 48, a journalist turned innkeeper; Matt Blesso, 36, a real estate investor ; Seth Weissman, 26, an investment banker) do plan to revamp the businesses a bit. But their intentions seem good. Here are the basics from the Gawker article, quoting Weissman:
The triumvirate says they’ve been meeting with homeowners and renters who spent the summer in the Pines to figure out what to fix. Their immediate plans for improvement are focused on improving the Blue Whale Restaurant, redesigning the Pavilion nightclub, adding a pool deck next to the hotel, and completely revamping the Hotel Ciel (known popularly as the Botel), a cinderblock monstrosity famous for its musty rooms, broken fixtures, shared bathrooms, and insanely inflated rates.
For the restaurant, they have brought in the owners of Hamptons eatery Almond to class up the joint and give people who don’t want to cook at home an option other than the pizza. “The guys from Almond will be running our food and distribution, but it’s not going to be French fare. It’s going to be much lighter, beach chic menu,” says Weissman.
More plans are in the works, including a new Sunday-afternoon party.
And, why did the previous owners, Eric Von Kursteiner and his partner, Anthony Roncolli, who’ve owned the properties since 2004, and who made many upgrades and renovations of their own decide to sell? Sounds like the eager new threesome made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.
Get the full scoop via Gawker. And get the biz/real estate angle from the The NY Times.
