By Steve Landwehr
IPSWICH — Nearly all the seasonal and year-round residents of Little Neck are betting their homes they can raise the money to buy a share of a proposed condominium association on the isthmus.
As of yesterday, 161 of the 167 cottage owners had signed agreements indicating they're intent on coming up with the $150,000 to $220,000 it will take to become an association member and have also tendered earnest money ranging between $11,136 and $12,800, according to Little Neck Legal Action Committee spokesman Mark DiSalvo.
According to the terms of their agreements, homeowners who can't raise the money to buy a share of the condo association will lose their cottage, and it will become the property of the Feoffees, DiSalvo said.
The subcommittee appointed by the School Committee to study the sale of Little Neck to the condo association recently questioned the willingness of homeowners to participate as a major question mark, DiSalvo said.
"This proves the viability of the deal," DiSalvo said.
Little Neck tenants and the Feoffees have been quarreling over lease arrangements for years, and critics have questioned the practices of the ancient Feoffees land trust even longer. The trust's proceeds, minus expenses, are meant to be annual gifts to the schoolchildren of Ipswich.
Because of ongoing litigation, the Feoffees have not made that yearly gift for some time.
A little more than a year ago, the tenants' association announced a deal to buy Little Neck from the Feoffees for $26.5 million. That deal fell through when the money couldn't be raised.
In January, the Feoffees announced the current agreement to sell individual lots to the condominium association in a deal that would raise $29.5 million.
However, any final action awaits the determination of a land court that it is lawful.
DiSalvo said the dispute is now in the hands of the School Committee.
"I submit that it's a very fair, workable settlement agreement," he said.
A call yesterday to the office of Feoffees' attorney William Sheehan was not returned.
