Latest news with #FisherRealEstate
Daily Mail
11-08-2025
- Daily Mail
Nantucket plunged into chaos by multiple bomb threats against Ralph Lauren store... and locals have a theory
Nantucket has been plunged into chaos for the third time in five days after another bomb threat struck the ritzy island's downtown district. Police evacuated Main Street Saturday after receiving a call from someone who said they were planning to place an 'improvised explosive device' at a Ralph Lauren store. The retailer was also the target of similar threats on Tuesday and Friday last week, but Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad did not uncover anything at the scene. Nantucket Police have not disclosed who they believe the perpetrator is or why the fake bomb threats are recurring - but locals have a theory. Several island residents have questioned whether a webcam, the Fisher Real Estate camera, which points directly at the Ralph Lauren is somehow making it a target. The camera normally provides a livestream of Main Street via YouTube, and the owners removed the feed following the second bomb menace. Speculation is swirling around whether other businesses on the street could have been the main target, though any clear motive is unclear. Multiple venues including the Gaslight and Club Car were also shuttered each time police received a bomb threat. Police evacuated Main Street Saturday after receiving a call from someone who said they were planning to place an 'improvised explosive device' at a Ralph Lauren store (pictured) Nantucket (pictured) has been plunged into chaos for the third time in five days after another bomb threat struck the ritzy island's downtown district On Saturday night, Nantucket Police were already on scene as part of security efforts for the Boston Pops concert, and they conducted searches within an hour. 'Members of the Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad, who were already on island for another event, were able to respond immediately,' Nantucket Police Chief Jody Kasper said in a statement. 'The area was thoroughly searched and no explosive device was located. Responders cleared the scene at 11:34pm. This was a false report, but we take every threat seriously. 'We appreciate the quick coordination between all involved agencies, and we thank the public for their patience and cooperation during the response. 'The case remains open and under investigation by the Nantucket Police Department Detective Unit, the Massachusetts State Police and the FBI.' The isolated island off Cape Cod is usually a peaceful retreat for wealthy holidaymakers, including Ben Stiller, Dave Portnoy, and the Obamas, who all own homes on the enclave Police evacuated Main Street Saturday after receiving a call from someone who said they were planning to place an 'improvised explosive device' at a Ralph Lauren store (pictured) The previous threats were recorded at 7.21pm on August 8, and on this occasion the person making the threat also said they were armed with a gun, police said. Nantucket Police Department said the case remains open and under investigation by local detectives, Massachusetts State Police and the FBI. The isolated island off Cape Cod is usually a peaceful retreat for wealthy holidaymakers, including Ben Stiller, Dave Portnoy, and the Obamas, who all own homes on the picturesque enclave.
Business Insider
26-07-2025
- Business Insider
Tree wars are tearing through Vacationland USA
An ocean view is priceless in coastal New England — unless you cut down a neighbor's trees to get it. Cases of alleged unauthorized tree-cutting and poisoning, or so-called "timber trespass," have sparked bitter neighbor-versus-neighbor legal feuds across wealthy US enclaves in recent years, with some resulting in seven-figure payouts. One lawsuit playing out in a Massachusetts court involves a homeowner on the exclusive New England island of Nantucket who has accused her neighbor of chopping down a swath of nearly 50-year-old trees on her family's property. The plaintiff, Patricia Belford, is seeking $1.4 million in damages and has alleged in the court papers that Jonathan Jacoby trespassed onto her property and cut down the trees "to enhance the ocean view" from his own compound — there's the main house, guest cottage, pool, and hot tub — that sits on about a half-acre next door. Belford said in the lawsuit that the tree-felling occurred during the winter offseason on Nantucket, a nearly 48-square-mile island off Cape Cod, where billionaires own estates. The median home sale price last year was $3.73 million, according to a report from an island realtor, Fisher Real Estate. Jacoby, the June lawsuit alleged, walked across his property at 3 Tautemo Way and onto Belford's land. On his own, he used a chainsaw to cut down 16 30-foot-high cedar, cherry, and Leyland cypress trees before he asked his landscaper to help him clean up the debris, the lawsuit and an attached statement by the landscaper to local police say. "The loss of the trees has significantly diminished the value and character of the Belford Property," the lawsuit said. "The trees were a mature and integral part of the landscape, planted and cared for by the Belford family for nearly 50 years." Jacoby's home was recently put on the market for nearly $10 million, with a listing that boasted "sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean." Those views that the latest listing touted were "conspicuously missing" from previous, pre-treegate listings, Belford's lawsuit said. The home was taken off the market this month. "It's usually done in some sort of act of desperation," a real estate agent on the island told Business Insider of similar illicit tree trimmings. "They need that bump. This property has previously been on the market, and they haven't been able to sell it. Therein lies the motivation." Jacoby is facing criminal charges over the tree-cutting ordeal. The Nantucket Police Department has charged Jacoby with vandalizing property, a felony, and the misdemeanors of trespassing and cutting/destroying trees, the chief of police confirmed to BI. An attorney for Jacoby, James Merberg, declined to comment on the criminal case and lawsuit but said that Jacoby will enter a plea of not guilty to the charges. Jacoby is scheduled to be arraigned on September 15. Jacoby could not be reached for comment, but he defended his actions to The Boston Globe, saying in an email, "I wasn't trespassing, I was clearing out her crappy trees." "Nantucket, the Vineyard — places where there is so much money at play — money and ego can get in the way very quickly," Glenn Wood, Belford's attorney, told BI, referring to the brazenness of the alleged action — and the attention it has gotten from the media. Tree law, it turns out, is an active legal niche. While most lawsuits don't accuse neighbors of such deliberate violations and most payouts or settlements don't reach seven figures, there have been a number of high-profile disputes that involve stealth maneuvers and big money. Tree-cutting fights aren't rare It's easy to see why trees can spur neighborly spats. A dead tree causes an eyesore; a large one blocks a view; a tree struck by lightning can leave debris. One look at the subreddit "tree law," which has 150,000 members, and the subject matter's universality becomes clear. Some people post asking for advice, like what to do about a neighbor's willow whose branches bow onto their roof. Others post on the latest news in the space, like a Missouri law regarding the sale of invasive species. New Hampshire-based attorney Israel Piedra, who started the website last year, told BI that tree-cutting disputes are "more common than people would think." Piedra, an attorney at the firm Welts, White & Fontaine, P.C., said he has carved out a practice representing property owners who have had their trees cut down without permission and has handled more than 100 such cases in recent years, primarily out of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Most cases, he said, do not involve accusations as "egregious" as those in the Nantucket lawsuit. "More commonly, you're dealing with a case where there isn't actually intentional conduct, or there isn't malicious intent," Piedra said, explaining that the majority of cases he has handled involve a careless homeowner who did not check the property line before cutting down trees. "They try to make it look like a mistake, or at least maintain some level of plausible deniability," he said. He said these cases are usually settled out of court through a neighbor's homeowner's insurance or a contractor's commercial liability insurance, and don't involve such high-value property or high-value damage claims. Piedra said he has never had a case settle for more than $1 million, though some cases have settled for six-figure sums. Timber trespass laws, Piedra said, vary state by state, with the New England states of Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts having some of the strongest in the country. "There's a lot of people looking for lawyers that do this kind of work," he said. When money grows on trees The allegations in the Nantucket lawsuit are extreme — crossing a property line, taking down healthy trees, the expenses involved. Putting in replacement trees, which would have to be brought from off the island, would cost nearly $500,000, Belford's lawsuit said. There have been other high-profile, big-ticket squabbles. An incident on Nantucket's sister island, Martha's Vineyard, ended in 2023 with a $2.5 million settlement after inn owners were accused of having more than 100 trees cut down on a neighboring property in a move that, a lawsuit said, "wreaked havoc and devastation akin to a war zone." In a 2006 case, a defendant in Vermont was ordered to pay $1.8 million in damages after timber trespassing. In one of the most publicized instances of human-on-tree destruction, last year, Amelia and Arthur Bond agreed to pay more than $1.7 million in fines and settlements after they'd applied herbicide to the area near the oak trees on the property of Lisa Gorman, the widow of the former L.L. Bean president and heir, in the idyllic New England coastal town of Camden, Maine. Like in the case of Jacoby and Belford, that of the Bonds and Gorman involved multimillion-dollar properties and a water view. The Bonds' weapon of choice was Tebuthioron, an herbicide that, according to a consent agreement, Amelia Bond — the former CEO of St. Louis Community Foundation, a charity with about $500 million in assets — applied to two large oak trees on Gorman's summer property, an oceanfront estate valued at $5 million. Once the chemical started to wreak havoc on Gorman's trees, Amelia Bond — whose 5,000 square-foot, $3.7 million mansion sits up the hill — allegedly swooped in and offered to cover half of the cost of their removal, Gorman's attorney said in a letter to a town official. What looked like neighborly kindness was really a ploy to get a better look at the water, the letter said. The pair confessed and paid more than $1.5 million to Gorman, $180,000 to the town, $4,500 to the Maine Board of Pesticides Control Board, and $30,000 for environmental testing, according to documents from a Camden Select Board meeting. The Bonds and their attorney did not respond to requests for comment from BI. Gorman, through her attorney, declined to comment. With details like a poisoning gone wrong, a wealthy heir, and a vacation hot spot, it's no wonder that tree law has become a surprisingly sexy corner of the legal world. "You mix all that into a cocktail," Wood, Belford's attorney, told BI. "It makes for an interesting fact pattern."
Boston Globe
14-07-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Nantucket's workers are living on the margins
The island town of charming cobblestone streets lined with shops selling handmade $400 caftans and high-end restaurants offering $50 lobster rolls is experiencing the same imbalance that has wracked other vacation destinations. In Spain, seasonal workers live in tent cities on Ibiza. Day laborers in the Hamptons have formed encampments. In Frisco, Colorado, ski instructors, ER nurses and others can live in their cars and vans in a parking lot if they can show proof that they are working in the area. 'Nantucket has 10 years or less before the entire island is owned by island conservation entities or seasonal homeowners,' said Brian Sullivan, 50, who is a principal broker at Fisher Real Estate and has lived on Nantucket for 28 years. Even families living on the island earning well into six figures are struggling to find affordable options. Advertisement Among Nantucket's full-time workforce are teachers, police officers, municipal workers, health care workers, firefighters and landscapers, many of whom commute by ferry, live in overcrowded or substandard conditions, or are homeless. Advertisement Efforts to create housing that is attainable for households with lower incomes have included a program called Lease to Locals, which gives a stipend to property owners willing to turn their short-term rentals into year-round residences. But the initiatives have been slow starting or are not large enough to meet the demand. And then there's opposition. 'The most frustrating phrase that I hear a lot is 'I'm not opposed to affordable housing, but,'' said Brooke Mohr, a member of Nantucket's Select Board. 'Generally, the 'but' is 'not here near me. Not there. Not more in this location.'' On Nantucket, the problem is hidden behind ocean views and cottages. 'Having your friends know that you are struggling can add a layer of stress on top of an already-challenging personal situation,' Mohr, 64, said. One solution could be the curbing of short-term rentals, which have been the subject of lengthy legal battles and town votes. But homeowners have pushed back, saying stays of 31 days or less are a way to afford the mortgage and benefit the island's economy. At a town meeting in May, Penny Dey, 66, a real estate broker who has lived year-round on the island for 49 years, said, 'It is a fundamental property ownership right to rent your home responsibly, and it's reckless not to safeguard that right for future generations.' Dey, who serves as chair of the Nantucket Housing Authority and as vice chair of the Town of Nantucket Affordable Housing Trust Fund, said the local economy depends on tourism and vacationers depend on the seasonal housing because the island lacks large-scale hotels. Advertisement 'Short-term rentals have been blamed for everything on Nantucket except erosion,' Dey said. Life is not a beach For the local government, addressing the disparity is critical. Marjani Williams, 47, works full time for the local Public Works Department collecting trash, mowing town lawns and maintaining roadside cleanup. She moved to Nantucket from Mississippi in 2023 for what she called 'a better living.' In Mississippi, the minimum wage is $7.25 per hour; on Nantucket, she's making around $67,000 annually. She lived in a basement apartment for a year, without a lease, and had to leave in the summer of 2024. 'I had nowhere to go,' Williams said. 'So I got all of my stuff, put it in my vehicle and went to the beach.' Then she heard a knock on her car window. A police officer told her that sleeping overnight on a Nantucket beach was prohibited. So she left that beach and went to another one, where she ran into a co-worker who, unbeknownst to her, was also homeless. Her co-worker was sleeping on a couch in the exercise room at the Public Works Department. Williams followed suit and slept on a love seat in the department's storage unit, a few hundred feet from the town's dump. 'I love my job,' Williams said, 'whether it is picking up a dead deer, patching potholes or cutting the grass. I have no family here. My co-workers are all just like my big brothers. They teach me and push me to get my different licenses, and I love them for that, but it's very stressful.' Williams and her co-worker did what locals call the 'Nantucket shuffle,' moving monthly from one temporary solution to another. This year she found a year-round apartment rental after moving three times. Advertisement Andrew Patnode, 36, who heads the Public Works Department, was shocked to learn that Williams and another employee were staying in the building and had been homeless. He is desperate to retain his employees. The high turnover rate is 'costly and exhausting,' he said. 'A lot of turnover doesn't exactly lead to day-to-day success.' The summer influx Last fall, Ed Augustus, secretary of the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, visited Nantucket to better understand its housing crisis. At the Chamber of Commerce's conference room, he sat at a large table packed with local officials, leaders and affordable-housing advocates. 'Massachusetts as a whole, the country as a whole, is facing a housing crisis. There is no question about it,' Augustus said at the meeting. 'But the way it manifests itself is unique on the island.' Nantucket has anywhere from 14,255 to 20,300 full-time residents, depending on the source, the U.S. census or a local study. In the summer, that number swells to 65,000 to 100,000, depending on which official you ask. Whatever the number, the influx taxes the local workforce. Police Chief Jody Kasper sat at the head of the conference room table. Kasper, 50, formerly the police chief in Northampton, Massachusetts, moved to Nantucket in 2023. She earns over $200,000 a year and resides in a rental unit with her wife, who works for the Nantucket public school system. It's Kasper's third rental home on the island in less than two years because she took what she could find -- short-term rentals. 'The newest 20 police officers, myself included, don't own a home here on the island, and the probability of them ever acquiring a home is almost zero,' Kasper said. Advertisement Like Patnode, Kasper described a frustrating churn of employees, which she attributed to the housing shortage. 'We invest a lot of time and energy and, of course, city money into training new people, and then we get them here and they get a couple of years under their belt,' she said. 'The hardest losses are when we are losing officers to other municipal departments.' Fire Chief Michael Cranson said that around 10% of his department members live off-island because they can't afford housing. They commute by ferry from more affordable communities, like those on Cape Cod. 'We try to adjust the firefighter's schedule so that it will be more conducive to commuting,' Cranson, 53, said. Despite creative and flexible scheduling, the department, which currently has 41 firefighters, can still fall short, the chief said. In July 2022, the storied Veranda House hotel, an island landmark, was engulfed by flames. 'On the mainland, we would have had close to eight communities to help us fight that fire. We just don't have that luxury here,' said Cranson, who spent 27 years working at a fire station in Rhode Island before moving to Nantucket in 2022. 'We ended up calling Hyannis and a couple of other towns on the Cape, and they came over, but it took them two hours to get here. Thank God the ferries were running that day.' In July, Cranson was permitted to hire two additional firefighters. The firehouse works in four shifts, with two of nine firefighters and two of 10. 'We are certainly in a better place than we were three years ago,' Cranson said. 'But if we have some type of large-scale event, we are still going to need to request help from off-island.' Advertisement 'We are not moving' Under a state law that went into effect in 1969, at least 10% of Nantucket's year-round housing stock must be affordable to people with limited incomes or those with 80% or less of the area median income -- no more than $119,750 for a family of four living on Nantucket, for example. So far, 405 units that meet the requirements have been built. An additional 213 need to be developed. Since 2019, Nantucket's residents have voted to appropriate $90 million toward affordable housing. But other efforts, such as a transfer tax on luxury homes to generate revenue to build affordable housing and a project for 156 condominiums with 39 designated for lower-income households, have been blocked. Some residents have voiced concerns about traffic, fire safety and environmental harm. Many of the island's year-round homeowners arrived in the 1980s and '90s, Sullivan, the real estate broker, said at the fall meeting. 'They bought homes for $285,000. They are entering retirement now and selling their homes for $2.8 million,' he said. Between 1,200 and 1,500 year-round residents are seeking stable housing, according to Anne Kuszpa, executive director of Housing Nantucket, an island-based nonprofit that develops and manages rental and homeownership opportunities for year-round residents. And those full-time residents are more diverse: In the past two decades, the island has attracted Latino people and immigrants from several countries. Over 43% of Nantucket's public school student body is Hispanic. Eleven languages and 17 countries are represented in the four island schools. Eillen Taveras, 46, moved to Nantucket in 2006 to work as a Spanish translator in the public school system and an interpreter for the hospital. Taveras also co-owns a cleaning business, is a justice of the peace and has a real estate license. 'Living here on a single salary would be very difficult,' she said before adding that leaving is not an option. Dominican-born and now a U.S. citizen, she got married on the island; she had two children who are native islanders; and she got divorced on the island. 'My two kids, all they know is Nantucket,' said Taveras, who currently works as a human resource specialist for the public schools. 'When I told them that we might have to move, they were like 'No way. We are not moving. We are staying in our home.' So it's just hard.' Her family stayed afloat through the Nantucket Education Trust, a nonprofit that provides rental housing to a select crop of teachers. Currently, the trust has 12 units that house 16 public school staff members. 'Unfortunately, 12 units do not even make a dent in our housing need, with the school district employing a total of approximately 360 full-time employees,' said Elizabeth Hallett, the superintendent. Joanna De La Paz, an administrative assistant of curriculum in the school system, rented a bedroom in a house with four other boarders, without assistance. They shared a kitchen and a bathroom. 'Most people renting out rooms won't let you use the kitchen,' De La Paz, 27, said. 'You have to buy food every day. I got lucky.' Even grocery shopping, however, is out of reach for many residents. About 21% of the island's year-round population is food insecure, and 47% of public school students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, according to data from the school system and a report funded through the state agriculture department. Born in Puerto Rico, De La Paz moved to Nantucket from the Dominican Republic about three years ago, attracted by the nearly $65,000 annual salary she was offered. Eventually her husband, a carpenter from the Dominican Republic, moved in with her. She said that many immigrants in the area are attracted to salaries that are higher than in other parts of the country. 'Most of the immigrants here are working in landscaping or carpentry, and sometimes they are being paid $25 an hour, which is a lot for them,' she said. But that wage cannot support a comfortable life on the island. In the spring, De La Paz moved into a one-bedroom apartment in the recently constructed Wiggles Way rental development for income-qualified households. In 2021, Taveras bought a four-bedroom home for $880,515 through Nantucket's Covenant Program, which creates a stable housing option for year-round islanders earning less than 150% of the area median income. 'The housing authorities on Nantucket have been doing a great job, and good things are happening,' Taveras said, 'but more people keep coming, and the island is so small and there is limited space to build more.' This article originally appeared in
New York Times
11-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Nantucket's Workers Are Living on the Margins
As private jets and superyachts arrive on Nantucket for the summer season, full-time residents and government officials are warning that the Massachusetts island must shake up the housing market so that the local work force can afford to live there. Around 65 percent of the island's nearly 12,000 housing units are occupied by seasonal residents. The median home price is around $2.5 million, according to data from the local housing agency and an island real estate brokerage. That leaves little housing for workers on an island where a decades-long divide of the haves and have-nots has reached a tipping point, town leaders say. The island town of charming cobblestone streets, lined with shops selling handmade $400 caftans and high-end restaurants offering $50 lobster rolls, is experiencing the same imbalance that has racked other vacation destinations. In Spain, seasonal workers live in tent cities on Ibiza. Day laborers in the Hamptons have formed encampments. In Frisco, Colo., ski instructors, E.R. nurses and others can live in their cars and vans in a parking lot, if they can show proof that they are working in the area. 'Nantucket has 10 years or less before the entire island is owned by island conservation entities or seasonal homeowners,' said Brian Sullivan, 50, who is a principal broker at Fisher Real Estate and has lived on Nantucket for 28 years. Even families living on the island, earning well into six-figures, are struggling to find affordable options. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
