The East Deck Meets the Wrecking Crew

Part of a fading era in Montauk came tumbling down on Friday, as a wrecking crew began demolishing the iconic East Deck Motel at Ditch Plain Beach.

By quitting time, half of the L-shaped structure that had stood along DeForest Road was gone, leaving only the portion on the road that leads to the beach access still standing.

By the end of this week, that will be gone, too. Also gone is the swimming pool on the property, as well as any accessory structures that once stood there. The property, where in 2014 new owners had proposed a two-story private beach club with a restaurant and below-grade parking, has been instead rezoned for residential development and divided into four house lots.

It was purchased in 2013 for about $15 million by a limited liability company headed by J. Darius Bikoff, one of the founding partners of Vitamin Water. The beach club proposal sparked a firestorm of opposition including a Labor Day weekend paddle out in 2014 that drew 100 surfers and boogie boarders to the water off Ditch Plain and still more to the beach. The plan was soon scuttled and the site was put back on the market for $25 million. East Hampton Town officials attempted to negotiate a public purchase of the property, but the price tag was ultimately too high.

Along with the rezoning approved in February by the East Hampton Town Board, the owners agreed to public access to the beach adjacent to the site in perpetuity.

There may be much wrangling in the future in front of the town’s zoning board of appeals, as well as the town’s planning board, over what the owners who buy the properties from the L.L.C., are allowed to build on the lots, which are highly constricted due to dimensions and proximity to wetlands and dunes.

The property is flanked on either end by dilapidated jetties that the L.L.C. also owns. The western jetty, shooting out into the Atlantic, is familiar to tourists and residents alike, who crowd the popular Ditch Plain Beach. The eastern jetty was covered long ago by sand. Town law prevents either jetty from being reconstructed or refurbished.