The man who is on his way to owning the most valuable waterfront property in Montauk is a Greek immigrant and restaurateur who owns three NY eateries and a construction empire — despite starting his life in America working in a factory.
But not much more seems to be known about Merkourios Angeliades, 77, who has been quietly assembling waterfront properties on the Hamptons’ most eastern end in hopes of building a new luxury resort that will rival Gurney’s Montauk Resort and Seawater Spa, and Gurney’s Star Island Resort and Marina.
Even the most connected locals were drawing a blank last week when asked about Angeliades, who is poised to become one of the most sought-after businessmen in the Hamptons.
“No one really knows him,” said one person involved in the sale. “He can be a very behind-the-scenes kind of guy.”
What is known is that for the past two years, Angeliades, the owner of Kyma Greek restaurants in Roslyn and Manhattan, has been quietly negotiating the purchase of Montauk properties owned by the Gosman family, which launched its legendary Montauk Harbor empire with a lobster shack in 1943.
Angeliades recently acquired two motels from the Gosmans and an adjacent acre for $ 8 million. He also signed a memorandum of agreement to buy their main complex, which includes Gosman’s Dock, Gosman’s Restaurant, Gosman’s Wholesale Fish Market, and Gosman’s Retail and other properties that surround it.
The properties, 14 acres in all, carried a $ 52.5 million price tag in 2016. There was a lot of competition, one source said.
Angeliades jumped in — beating everyone else out — after approaching George Filopoulos of Metrovest Equities, who co-owns Gurney’s Resorts with BLDG Management’s Lloyd Goldman, about the possibility of opening a new resort, sources said.
But Angeliades did not have ties to Montauk and is not a boat owner, sources said. Instead of vacationing here, he’s in Greece, and could not be reached for comment.
In a 2010 interview he gave to Greek-American publication The National Herald, Angeliades, who is known as Mike, said he worked in a factory for 85 cents an hour when he first arrived in the US. At the time he desperately wanted to return to his home in the island of Simi.
Now, Angeliades owns Long Island City construction business M.A. Angeliades, which has done a lot of work for the city, including projects for Rikers Island jails and the MTA.
His biggest scandal appears to be from 2010, when he, his daughter Irene, and two union workers pled guilty in Bronx Supreme Court in a swindle involving more than 300 workers and $ 600,000 in wages for city projects.
The father-daughter duo paid employees at M.A. Angeliades $ 20 an hour in cash for overtime, weekend or holiday shifts for construction jobs but reported higher wages — and pocketed the difference, prosecutors said.
His wife’s name is Libby and they have four daughters, according to The National Herald.
Angeliades also owns three popular Greek restaurants — a flavor he could bring to his Montauk resort. In addition to Kyma in Roslyn and the Flatiron district, he has a third Greek restaurant, Elea, on the Upper West Side.
“No one really knows about his involvement with Kyma and Elea,” said the source involved in the deal. “He is the main financial investor, the money behind the restaurants. But he keeps his ego out of it.”