Z.B.A. Reaches a Deal Saving Dominy Workshops

Barry Rosenstein, the founder of Jana Partners, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund, who reportedly paid $147 million for property at 60, 62, and 64 Further Lane in East Hampton Village, was granted variances from the village zoning code that will allow him to replace the historic Dominy clock and woodworking shops on his 16-acre property with an accessory building he is calling “Dominy Pavilion.” The historic structures are to be returned to their North Main Street site, near the Emergency Services Building.

With Linda Riley, the Z.B.A. attorney, absent, the decisions on Mr. Rosenstein’s application were the only ones announced on Friday. Several other determinations were postponed and two hearings were held over.

Several generations of the East Hampton Dominy family, including Nathaniel IV, his son Nathaniel V, and grandson Felix, were renowned for furniture and clock-making skills. Two shops, dating to 1797 and 1850, were moved in 1946 and merged into one building by the late Dudley Roberts, who owned the property at 62 Further Lane. They are now designated by the village as timber-frame landmarks and cannot be torn down.

Mr. Rosenstein’s acquisition of the single-family house on the three oceanfront parcels was said by Forbes magazine to be the most expensive in United States history. The house has now been torn down and a massive foundation readied for a new one. The property had belonged to the late Christopher Browne, who bought it in 1996 for $13.4 million.

The variances Mr. Rosenstein received concern code prohibitions on insulation, heating, and floor area exceeding 250 square feet in accessory buildings, in this case a pool house. Variances were also granted allowing the pool house to be 16 feet high rather than 14, and to fall within a side-yard setback. Just before the hearing, Mr. Rosenstein responded to the village’s newly adopted ordinance limiting the size of basements by cutting his proposed 1,150-square-foot basement almost in half.

The variances were granted on the condition that the East Hampton Village Design Review Board approves the relocation of the landmark structures and that the new building will have no cooking equipment or sleeping accommodation. The board was expected to have the property on its agenda yesterday. 

The new accessory building’s footprint will match that of the combined Dominy shops. It is to include an ocean-view terrace and an outdoor fireplace, with two rooms and a bathroom on the first floor and an additional 650 square feet of finished space at the basement level.

 One of the hearings scheduled on Friday, on an application to allow the continued existence of accessory structures that do not meet the zoning code’s setback and lot-coverage requirements at the 10 Buell Lane Extension property of Thomas A. Piacentine and Kathleen Ryan, was held open. It is scheduled to resume at the board’s next meeting, on Friday, July 24.