Sag Harbor real estate brokerages do a shuffle

Maps shows the Sag Harbor real estate shuffle

Sag Harbor’s pristine beaches may be a draw for the wealthy and influential set. But it’s a street in the center of town that attracts another set of movers and shakers — the village real estate firms.

A stretch of Main Street that is less than a quarter mile long is lined with brokers’ offices, and as the market shifts, firms play a more strategic game of musical chairs, most recently with Brown Harris Stevens (seen in green) moving down the street and Agawam Realty (seen in purple) taking over the firm’s old digs.

BHS’ move to 96 Main Street from 76 Main Street was more than a locational shift — it was a move to a newer, larger office, in a region where the firm had long come in third in terms of its broker ranks. BHS’ new office was one Corcoran gave up in February.

Much in the same way, Agawam Realty, which split from its partner Century 21 Albertson last September, chose to stay on Main Street when it upgraded its digs. The boutique real estate group moved into BHS’ 76 Main Street digs from 16 Main Street “because the place was falling down,” said Agawam’s manager Denise Rosko. And while she said her firm “didn’t move there because BHS was there,” she admitted that its competitor’s mark on that spot didn’t hurt matters either.

Both Rosko and Charles Manger, BHS’ executive director of Eastern Long Island, said that their moves were made entirely based on office conditions. Rosko said she wanted a more modern office; Manger, in a previous interview, said that 96 Main Street gave his group a more central presence in Sag Harbor village and that the larger office was better for his team.

The Corcoran Group (seen in red) perhaps bit off more than it could chew in Sag Harbor, taking over three offices on Main Street in 2003 and 2004, and eventually abandoning two of them.

The chart above shows other recent moves that Sag Harbor real estate firms have made on Main Street, including Corcoran’s takeover of Dayton Halstead’s digs at 84 Main Street in May 2004. Eight-four Main Street now belongs to Strough Real Estate.

Corcoran had absorbed Cook Pony Farm, and shed Cook’s office at 96 Main Street early this year, according to Gioia DiPaolo, a broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman and long-time veteran of Sag Harbor real estate. In 2006, Corcoran bought up Alan Schneider at Main and Madison streets (the office has no address number), moving all of Corcoran’s Sag Harbor agents into the space, where it remains based today.