Marc Rowan is assembling a North Fork empire
The Apollo CEO has spent roughly $30 million on greater than 100 acres in East Marion. He says he has no plans to develop it — for now.
That has prompted the identical apparent query requested each time a billionaire starts buying giant portions of waterfront property: What precisely is he as much as?
For the second, Rowan, who’s been energetic within the North Fork earlier than, says, not a lot. “It’s actually the one piece,” the Apollo World Administration CEO mentioned in an interview, pushing again on the concept that he has launched into a broader North Fork shopping for spree. “It’s one very giant piece. It’s simply essentially the most stunning piece I’ve seen in a very very long time. So spectacular.”
Rowan’s Apollo has within the neighborhood of $1 trillion in belongings underneath administration and a market capitalization of about $68 billion. Rowan himself is price $7 or 8 billion, per Forbes. He owns a Gin Lane residence in Southampton, which he purchased for $27 million in 2007.
However the centerpiece of Rowan’s North Fork holdings is the roughly 100 acres round Cove Seashore in East Marion, acquired earlier this 12 months for $23.5 million in what was the most costly land sale in North Fork historical past. The acquisition consisted of 17 parcels bought by way of a group of LLCs bearing the less-than-romantic names NFH JC, NFH JC II, NFH JC III and so forth — as a result of nothing evokes outdated potato fields and salt air fairly like a Delaware LLC adopted by Roman numerals.
The parcels stretch alongside the Lengthy Island Sound close to Stoney Seashore and Cove Seashore roads, simply west of Truman’s Seashore. Particular person transactions ranged from $50,000 to $4.095 million.
Since 2024, entities tied to Rowan have additionally bought three close by properties for a mixed $6.5 million, bringing the entire assemblage to roughly 112 acres. However Rowan says the purchases must be considered as one property slightly than the beginnings of some huge North Fork empire. “You come throughout issues which are generational,” he mentioned. “This is sort of a half mile on the water. It’s as stunning because it will get.”
And what does one do after spending tens of thousands and thousands on a generational half-mile of Lengthy Island waterfront? Apparently, wait.
“Proper now there’s no plan to do something,” Rowan mentioned. “I’ll research it over a few years.”
He famous that the property is at present zoned for 16 heaps, because it was earlier than his buy, however mentioned he has no instant intention of exercising these growth rights.
“I’ve no plans to develop proper now, no plans to do something,” he mentioned. That “proper now” will presumably be of some curiosity to East Marion residents, who’ve already been maintaining a tally of the property.
Rowan mentioned neighbors have contacted native officers after noticing appreciable exercise on land that had been largely untouched for many years. However he mentioned the vans and dumpsters aren’t proof that building is quietly getting underway.
The place simply wanted a really giant spring cleansing.
“This property sat idle for 50 years,” Rowan mentioned. “It’s a dumping floor. There are outdated vehicles. So we’ve been cleansing it up.” Rowan mentioned crews have eliminated “dumpster after dumpster after dumpster,” attracting sufficient consideration that the planning board and constructing inspector have visited the location. “There’s nothing being carried out,” he mentioned. “It’s actually simply cleanup.”
Behind the neighbors’ concern is the truth that the North Fork has spent the previous a number of years confronting the peculiar issues that come up when very wealthy folks uncover someplace that has remained comparatively unspoiled.
Developer Stefan Soloviev, for one, has amassed greater than 1,000 acres within the space and proposed substantial residential tasks, fueling an ongoing debate over simply how a lot growth the North Fork’s farms, vineyards and small hamlets can take up earlier than they change into one thing else completely.
Rowan insists his plans are significantly much less bold. “Preserving the character of the world is essential to you?” this reporter requested him. “Yeah,” he replied. “That’s what we do all over the place.”
There are already vital limits on what can occur to a lot of the property.
Dutch businessman Raoul Witteveen, who owned a big portion of the land starting within the Nineteen Nineties, pursued an in depth conservation program there, and a few 69 acres are protected by Peconic Land Belief easements.
The acreage additionally has an appropriately glamorous North Fork pedigree. Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley as soon as owned about 70 acres there, shopping for it in 1985 and promoting lower than two years later. Numerous house owners and builders have subsequently entertained plans for the location, most of which went nowhere.
Rowan, in the meantime, is hardly a stranger to the North Fork. He purchased the previous Orient by the Sea restaurant property in 2019 for $3.9 million and reworked it into Duryea’s Orient Level, the jap outpost of his more and more polished restaurant assortment. He additionally owns Duryea’s in Montauk and Lulu Kitchen & Bar in Sag Harbor.
The Orient purchase famously wasn’t completely intentional. Rowan beforehand informed Fortune that he noticed a restaurant from his boat and informed his legal professional to purchase it. Someplace within the communication chain, wires obtained crossed and the legal professional started negotiating for Orient by the Sea as an alternative. Rowan confirmed up, regarded round and determined to purchase the improper restaurant anyway. Requested whether or not that story was actually true, Rowan laughed. “It’s really true,” he mentioned.
As for whether or not extra North Fork acquisitions — eating places or in any other case — is likely to be coming, Rowan mentioned there isn’t a grand plan. He operates Duryea’s in Orient and spent this summer time attending to know the world higher, however mentioned his curiosity was particularly within the East Marion land.
“I actually don’t have every other plans at this level,” he mentioned.
So, for now, East Marion’s latest 112-acre landowner mentioned he will likely be tidying up the spectacular half-mile of waterfront and determining what, something, he desires to do there. Which leaves the 16 heaps, the $30 million funding and the query of what occurs in “a few years.” However maybe there actually isn’t a grasp plan.
As Rowan put it when discussing his unintended restaurant acquisition: “Stuff occurs, Laura.”
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