The encroaching Hamptonization of the erstwhile whaling town of Sag Harbor has a new villain: Manhattan landlord-developer Donald Zucker. Or at least some locals see it that way. He now owns three currently humble storefronts on Main Street, another on Bay Street, the Bridgehampton National Bank building, and, at the mouth of town, the big Corcoran mansion. The worry is that Zucker will jack up rents to drive out mom-and-pops. “There’s a convergence of forces in Sag Harbor, and he’s part of it,” says James Henry, an attorney representing one of Zucker’s tenants, the dry cleaner Whalers. (Zucker also owns the East Hampton Cinema and an adjoining strip of stores.) Zucker’s publicist says nothing should be read into her client’s recent buys. “He’s owned property out there for years,” says spokesperson Alice McGillion of Rubenstein Associates. “He has no interest in changing the character of the area.”

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by S.Jhoanna Robledo
• Table of Contents: September 17, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!