East Hampton looks to buy airport hangar lease of late East End builder

A year after the sudden death of Hamptons builder Ben Krupinski in a plane crash off Amagansett, officials in East Hampton are negotiating with those handling his estate to buy out a lease on the largest hangar at the East Hampton Airport, 27east reported. Krupinski first leased the hanger, which is known as the East Hampton Executive Terminal, for $50,000 in 1996. Annual increases bumped the rate up to $104,000 by 2018. In 2016, Krupinski extended the lease until 2026. The town board voted in May to approve using $275,000 of the airport’s surplus funding reserves to buy Krupinski’s lease. But officials are still in negotiations and the money has yet to be appropriated, according to 27east. The roughly 10,000-square-foot hanger has attached offices with another 2,000 square feet. The terms of the lease require that the property undergo an “environmental audit” before East Hampton can take it over. The lessee also has to fix any environmental issues at the site before it is turned over to the town. The hangar is not part of a 47-acre swath that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation declared last week to be contaminated by hazardous waste and a Superfund site. The contaminated portions, located around the airport, will have to be cleaned up by the state and local authorities. As for the late Krupinski, two longtime staffers assumed control of his construction business, but earlier this year his estranged daughter was found dead at 52. [27east]