You can't live in it

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by Jennifer Gould

Oops, he did it again.

Harry McCullough, one of New York City's most enterprising developers, has listed his Hamptons home facing the exclusive Georgica Pool — with neighbors like Steven Spielberg — for $38 million.

There is only one catch. It is uninhabitable.

This is because the mansion lacks a certificate of occupancy, and the new owners will not be legally allowed to move in.

McCullo Illegally clearing land on the property and building additions without permits, endangering wetlands East Hampton village officials say fines for more than 21 violations have not been paid for five years.

The informal renovations to his Hamptons home echo his 1985 move to hire a mob-run company to blow up four buildings on West 44th Street in the middle of the night without city permits, hours before the city began enforcing its ban on demolishing single-room buildings.

Officials said at the time that the demolition put people's lives in danger. Macklowe paid a $2 million fine, but escaped indictment because of it Unable to prove “criminal intent” the Manhattan District Attorney said at the time.

“It's crazy. He tore up the decks and did whatever he wanted. He illegally cleared the land and built without permits, just like he did on West 44th Street,” an inside source said.

“The house is also dramatically raised to the max,” the source added. There is no justification for requesting $38 million. The house comes with legal complications and it's not even on the pond. “

The insider estimated: “Its value is no more than $12 to $15 million.”

The East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals refused to retroactively approve McCullough's illegal actions, so McCullough sued them. The case is ongoing.

For now, Thomas Priato, building inspector for the Village of East Hampton, confirmed to The Post that McCullough “can sell the house, but no one can occupy it.”

“He had a certificate of occupancy for the house in 2017. But it’s no longer valid because of all the fines he didn’t pay,” Priato said.

The inspector added: “It has endangered the wetlands. We have a wetlands law for a reason. “It's worrying.”

In 2019, The Post reported that officials said McCloy built on the property illegally and did not pay the fines that came after the fact.

McCullough declined to comment when contacted by The Post at the time. He also refused to comment on putting the house up for sale.

He no longer has a full-time job: “He hires them on a project-by-project basis,” his former spokesman said.

Lead broker Paul Brennan of Douglas Elliman, who shares McCullough's listing with Elliman's Martha Gundersen, declined to comment.

The four-bedroom home has a pool and is located on 2.7 acres at 64 West End Ave. In East Hampton. The listing indicates that it is surrounded by preserved land.

McCloy paid $10.35 million for the house in 2017, then proceeded to clear the land and build near the wetlands — all without permits, village authorities say.

At the time, he was living there with Patricia Landau, now his wife, while he was in the midst of an ugly divorce from Linda McCullough, who still lives across the pond — so close that the former spouses can see each other from their homes.

While this closeness to an ex might make some people uncomfortable, McCullough is not one of those people. He also pasted a 42-foot-tall photo of himself with Lando into the 432 Park Avenue high-rise, which he helped develop — but where he never closed on a unit.

(It recently escaped foreclosure on its units there, at least temporarily, by having the entity it controls file for bankruptcy.)

The Post previously reported in 2019 that McCloy admitted to the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals that he didn't have the permits he needed to build and clear wetlands, but he did it anyway.

Richard Whalen, McCloy's then-attorney, told the zoning board: “The vast majority of the improvements we are coming to you for approval have already been done. They were built without the benefit of a building permit, variances or wetlands permit from this board.”

The work was carried out within 150 feet of wetlands in violation of the law, according to the East Hampton Star.

“More than 21 charges have been filed multiple times since 2019, and there is a stop work order issued as of February 11, 2019, but it has been implemented at that point. “They got what they wanted,” Priato said.

“It's rough or rough. It's been happening for a while. Someone feels a kind of entitlement, like they're not subject to the rules, but when it affects bodies of water, it's more dangerous than a yard that's very close to the line.”

McCullough was also in a dispute with former neighbor Martha Stewart in the 1990s over farms on her property.

–Additional reporting by Doug Koontz