Yacht Club Is Sold

Euram Management, the real estate division of the European American Bank, has sold the Montauk Yacht Club.

Ian Aitkin, a Euram vice president, refused to name either the buyer or the price paid for the resort. The asking price was $10.5 million.

"Our intent is to get the property up and running. We're looking to open April 15," said the interim manager, Bruce Gillies of the New Castle Hotel Corporation of Connecticut, which has been hired to manage the club. He too said he was not at liberty to disclose the buyer's identity.

Mr. Gillies said the new owners would undertake renovations of the 224-slip marina during the season and of the resort's 107 rooms at the end of the season. The 25-acre property includes what are called the Ziegfield Villas, three pools, tennis courts, and several restaurants.

Readying For The Season

For now, Mr. Gillies said, the management firm was hiring employees, planning menus, and otherwise preparing for the season. A permanent manager will be hired in the coming weeks.

"We want to bring it back to the level people remember it as," he said. Rates will remain between $119 and $295 a night, Mr. Gillies added.

Euram took over the club in 1993 after the former owners, Montauk Development Associates, had financial difficulties. That partnership, which included Peter Brock, Steven Goldstein, Arthur Cohen, and Guy LaMotta, poured an estimated $27 million into the club. It relinquished ownership in lieu of foreclosure on a $25 million mortgage held by E.A.B.

Troubled Dreams

"It got to the point where future investment in the club needed to be made by a longer term investor," said Mr. Aitken in explaining why Euram put the resort on the market last summer. Negotiations with the new owner began in the fall, he said.

The club, on Star Island, was to have been the centerpiece of Carl Fisher's dream to transform Montauk into the Miami Beach of the North. It opened in 1928 just before the stock market crash and Great Depression.

Montauk Development Associates also had its share of problems. In 1988, East Hampton Town denied its application to develop condominiums at the adjacent Deep Sea Club. That building later burned to the ground. The recession in the early 1990s forced the partnership to seek bankruptcy protection. And just before the opening of the season in 1991, a fire caused an estimated $2 million in damage to a newly renovated section of the Yacht Club building.