Fire Island Business District Auctions To Manhattan Hotelier Ian Reisner For $10M

Via the New York Times:

A strip of commercial real estate along the harbor in Fire Island Pines sold for $10.1 million at auction on Thursday to developers with plans to continue the revival of a former mecca for closeted gay men. The sale price was well below the $25 million the previous owners sought when they placed it on the market last fall, and below the $17 million they paid for it in 2010. In a deal hammered out over more than six hours, the property was bought by Ian Reisner, who also owns the Out NYC, a hotel on West 42nd Street in Manhattan that focuses on a gay clientele. The deal is expected to close in February.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Reisner said he, his business partner and a small team of investors planned to spend $4 million over the next 18 months to “renovate and rejuvenate” the property, which includes a hotel, a nightclub, a restaurant, a bar and retail space. The Pavilion nightclub in Fire Island Pines was rebuilt after a 2011 fire and reopened, but in the interim the crowd moved on. “My idea for the Out was to have a place for L.G.B.T., because we didn’t have that at the time,” said Mr. Reisner, who said he has been visiting Fire Island Pines since he came out as gay in 1989. “The Pines is the Out.”

Reisner was last in the news back in October when a 25 year-old Hell's Kitchen club manager died of an apparent drug overdose in his $25M Central Park South penthouse.