Boroughs & Burbs 59 || The Fire Island Show with Experts Robert Kuchar and Glenn Rice

Boroughs & Burbs, the National Real Estate Conversation

Fire Island is a 1-mile-wide barrier island with 32 miles of pristine white sand beaches and no paved roads. It began in 1653 like Nantucket as a whaling community. Real estate boomed in the 1950s, and Fire Island emerged as "the premier bohemian summer retreat" Newly established beach bungalows lit up with creative New Yorkers. Over the next ten years, the landscape became a collage of rooftops where the rich and famous were able to escape.
​​​​​​​ Like Nantucket the majority of the island is protected and will remain undeveloped. There are approximately 4,500 homes on the island, and about 820,865 people come by ferry to visit the beaches every summer.
- What is the Fire Island of 2022 and how has it changed in the last 10 years?
- Have the bohemians all left, priced out of the market, as Fire Island gentrifies?
- The average price is $1.14 million, half of the average in East Hampton and a third the average of Nantucket. Is Fire Island a relative bargain for affluent New Yorkers?
- Is Fire Island a gay community? According to FireIsland.com this is one of the most frequently asked questions and greatest misconceptions about Fire Island.
- Bloomberg reports that Fire Island Pines is the most expensive its ever been, where a 4 bedroom on Black Duck Walk rents for $17,500 a week.
Ocean Beach, with 600+ houses, is the most established year-round town, but does anybody actually live on Fire Island and commute daily into Manhattan?
- Fire Island Pines summer population swells to 4,000 at peak but in the winter the number dwells to only a few dozen. Is that going to change in a post-covid world?
Robert Kuchar of Douglas Elliman Real Estate
Real estate has always been Robert Kuhar’s life. The son of a builder/contractor who learned the ropes early, he developed a keen eye for property value and potential which he uses to the benefit of his clients. He has owned apartments, single-family and multifamily homes, had experience as an investor and landlord, and overseen all aspects of home building – from cosmetic to plumbing /electrical to structural work.
​​​​​​​ In addition to being a busy broker in NYC, in May 2019, Robert opened the second Douglas Elliman office on Fire Island, in Ocean Beach – the culmination of a 10-year dream – where he is Branch Manager. He has an intimate understanding of both the NYC and Fire Island markets having lived in New York City for almost 30 years (in the Upper West, Upper East, Downtown, Midtown, Brooklyn and now Harlem), and owned in Ocean Bay Park, Fire Island for 15+ years.
Glenn Rice of Brown Harris Stevens
Glenn Rice moved to NYC in 1991 to attend Columbia University where he received a degree in English Literature. He embraced downtown music and art culture and joined the music industry where he worked in International Marketing for Elektra and at Jive Records where he handled the rollout of sales and promotion efforts for some of music’s top acts. Glenn next ran an international language school for which he traveled all over the world executing marketing strategies. After the purchase of a landmark townhouse on Harlem’s Strivers Row in 2000 at the age of 27, he began his career in real estate where he quickly became the top townhouse broker in Harlem, setting all sales records and creating a client base that still includes some of the top contemporary artists in the world.
Glenn has lived and worked on Fire Island for the past four years and is noted for his renovation of a classic beach cottage in Fire Island Pines creating a modern masterpiece that was recently featured in the New York Times.
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