Dan's Papers - February 22, 2008 - Home Listed For Record $80 Million Is Withdrawn

In January 2007, Robert Rust's 55-acre North Haven property was put on the market with much fanfare - and an asking price of $80 million. The property faces Mashomack Preserve on Shelter Island and is just before the South Ferry landing. Rust decided to sell the property, which includes 3,000 feet of waterfront on the Shelter Island Sound and three houses, after his permit applications to make necessary repairs on the structures were denied by the North Haven and Town of Southampton officials. At the time, the listing had set the record price asked for a private residential listing in New York State.

However, a year later, Rust has decided to not renew the listing and has taken the property off the market. Having received the permits to renovate the structures and spending well over $100,000 renovating the homes, he has opted to spend the summer on the property with his family. It will be his first family gathering in some time. "I believe I will have the capacity to house all 28 of my family - my twenty grandchildren, one great grandchild and my children."

With $180,000 in annual taxes paid and up to date, there was never a pressure for Rust to sell. He said that, as of February 14, the Village of North Haven never made an offer to purchase the land. All talk of the town purchasing the land for use as a park or reserve is just not true. "They have never contacted me or ever made an offer," he said in a phone conversation from his Miami home.

Rust, 79, is a former U.S. Attorney in Florida who served Presidents Nixon and Ford with distinction. He is credited with breaking up an assassination attempt on President Elect Kennedy in Miami in 1960. Rust had spent summers at his mother's (and now his) estate on Nassau Point on the North Fork for decades. He inherited the North Haven property from his Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Orin Anderson five years ago. He believes they paid $200,000 for it in 1950.

Concerning the property, Rust said, "If and when I sell it won't be a distress sale. The taxes are paid up to date." When asked if he would entertain offers, Rust paused, laughed and said, "Only if I get an offer I can't refuse. Then I might even throw in my 1990 Mustang convertible."

But as of now it is off the market. Rust doesn't foresee donating the land to North Haven or selling it below value to the Village. There would be no tax advantage for him and he has no problem paying the taxes. He now admits that perhaps one of the main reasons he put the property up for sale in the first place was because he was angry when the Town and Village officials denied him the permits to bring water and electricity to two of the three homes. But now those projects are all complete as well as the addition of new accommodations above the two-car garage. "I am still trying to figure out where I am going to put everybody," he said.

A graduate of St. Lawrence University, Rust worked for three summers in Montauk during his late teens, crewing on the charter boat "Early Bird." Three years ago he paid another visit to Montauk and couldn't believe the changes. "Back then there were only two docks - Gosman's and The Montauk Yacht Club," he said. "Now only God knows how many there are." Rust still thinks back to his days catching tuna as the best years of his life.

In fact, he hopes to re-create that experience for his children. He plans to have his 35-foot fishing boat, The Nimbus, brought up from Miami. "I am going to take the grandchildren out 60 to 80 miles and catch yellow fin tuna. I am going to finally have my family together."

When asked if he will put the property on the market again after the summer, he replied, "Who knows?"