Opinion: Is the Town Killing a Goose That Laid the Golden Egg?

I remembered the property that is the Surf Lodge in Montauk when it was abandoned and bordered up. It was the same time that there was a record amount of unsold homes across the Hamptons and prices where falling unimpeded like a knife through the air. I was sent to the almost completed Surf Lodge to see these crazy nightclub owners from NYC who were spending millions to upgrade the property and write an article for my curious editor. On my way there from my trailer at Ditch Plains for the interview, I was wondering if I was going to see yet another disaster like the implosions going on all over. There was no money, not only on the east end, but in the whole world. Banks across the world were folding, except ones like the Bridgehampton Nation Bank who did not deal in home mortgages. It was during that time that BNB CEO Kevin O'Connor met with me in his board room and gave a quote I have used many times since. I asked him about the future of the east end real estate during these dark times (2008) and he said, "as long as that ocean is right there (as he pointed toward the beach) the east end real estate market will be all right." I will admit at the time I wasn't as sure as Kevin was.

It was during this exact time that the Surf Lodge folks opened their wallets and invested hugely (millions) in Montauk. At the time friends in Montauk said, "They are going to ruin Montauk...They will bring the wrong kind of people to Montauk...They will fail." I can truly say nobody saw or predicted the kind of success the Surf Lodge had that first year. It spun heads, other business's struggling were extremely openly jealous. I had one restaurant owner say to me for a Montauk business story quote, "They are stealing 270 plus settings (Tables for dinner) per weekend night from the rest of us." Needless to say many business owners said openly something had to be done, and then it was, in the name of public safety.

First it was the parking on the streets around the club. Then it was the number of folks in the place, then it was the loud music and finally it was their septic system too. All legitimate issues, all handled however in my opinion in a way not to help these folks who invested in Montauk but to perhaps drive them out of town. Now a decade later, boom, Montauk is gold. Many of the folks who tried to run the Surf Lodge owners out of town are hundreds of thousands of dollars Montauk real estate richer.

There is no doubt in my mind the Surf Lodge and its cache helped turn around what was then a bad Montauk real estate downward spiral. I wrote stories about old families selling out, "while they could." Now the story is of old families cashing out with "scores of millions."

My friends complained that the new "Surf Lodge people" were changing Montauk for the worse. They are still saying that and they believe it. They are good people, hard working, community minded church going (lol at least a few) people. However they were and are wrong. Those "Surf Lodge" people didn't ruin Montauk, they helped save it. The Surf Lodge brought out a new generation of folks to love Montauk. These folks will have families someday and come back and rent or buy homes. They will help keep the summer economy rolling and local real estate prices strong.

That is why I am publicly writing this piece. A rumor says the present owner of the Surf Lodge may be looking to leave. Ownership has never felt appreciated by certain unelected town officials who have used their legal authority to enforce the codes but not in a coordinated way to enhance both safety and success but in my personal opinion in a way to menace and quite frankly hurt the Surf Lodge's bottom line. I have been to functions at the Surf Lodge attended by almost every Town Official for very good causes. I have brought friends there after their vacation day in Montauk. I took my wife there on our first date almost 10 years ago. I even went to the Surf Lodge on its initial opening weekend with Carl Darenberg in my car to see what all the commotion and opening weekend hype was all about. Carl looked at me as we filtered in and said, "This place is amazing!"

It truly is an amazing place, with an amazing success story that has lifted Montauk with it. I don't know the owners, I wasn't asked to write this piece but felt compelled to publicly say thank you to the Surf Lodge folks for building and maintaining a place I visit now when I vacation in Montauk. And to all the locals who aren't thrilled with all the tourists, this reminder, when they drive west on 27 out of Montauk they too become a tourist. "We want your money but we don't want you," is not the best way to run a community.