Billionaire stalls building of massive Southampton compound

Thomas Sandell, the billionaire Swedish hedge fund manager, has taken a 10-month break from the construction of an 18,000-square-foot Moroccan-style home at 1320 Meadow Lane in Southampton that is about 60 percent complete, the New York Post reported. It wasn’t immediately clear if Sandell planned to fully abandon the project. His local lawyer, Gilbert Flanagan, did not return the Post’s requests for comment. “The owner is now weighing his options, including demolition,” said Chris Talbot, the Southampton Village building inspector. Sandell has already spent about $37.1 million to buy the property and another $19 million on construction since 2012. Multiple architects, including John Kirk and John David Rose, have been attached to the project, whose stalled status was noted by 27east in January. The latest project manager is Christian Barletta of Southampton-based Sandpebble Builders. The partially-built home, which sits on a roughly eight-acre oceanfront parcel, has two stories, numerous arches and a distinctive roof with pyramids and conical peaks. [NYP]