EASTHAM — Brewster businessman Gary Vecchione recently set up a social media page called Collins Cove Cottage Condos, where he announced that he plans to purchase the seven houses built on the shore of Town Cove that have been rented out during the summers by the Collins family since the 1920s.
In his online posts, Vecchione outlines his plans to convert and sell the cottages as year-round condos. The posts include nostalgic photos of the cottage colony with captions like, “If you ever wanted to own a piece of Olde Cape Cod history.” Several of them link to the Collins family’s own website with its gallery of photos showing both the interiors and exteriors of the cottages, which until now, were available for rent.
The property includes six cottages and the main house where several generations of Collinses have lived. Vecchione’s condo plan has generated considerable enthusiasm from the 100 or so people who have signed up for the Facebook page. But while he is working to stimulate potential buyers’ interest, whether he will actually ever own the property is a matter of dispute.
Despite that, Vecchione has posted that interested parties should email him proof of funds “and we can talk pricing, proposed closing dates, etc.” He has said the cottages with two or three bedrooms will likely be priced at $750,000 and up, and he wants $950,000 for the four-bedroom main house. Vecchione states he expects to take ownership of the property by spring.
Vecchione bases his claim on a formal offer to purchase the property for $3,250,000 he made in July. The Collinses accepted it in writing. The date to sign off on a purchase-and-sale agreement was Aug. 16, based on the terms of the offer. But the two sides have yet to sign the agreement.
On Aug. 27, Vecchione filed suit in Barnstable Superior Court claiming that the Collinses had breached their contract by failing to sign the agreement. He asked the judge to order the family to sell him the 2.7-acre site on Town Harbor, according to court documents.
‘No Deal’
Lewis Collins bought the property on the cove in 1906, according to the family history on the cottage rental website. There, he and his son Bernard built the cottages in the late 1920s “out of material found on the grounds as well as lumber from the former Chatham Naval Air Station.” For several generations, the family lived in the main house on the property. A small building near the docks, known as the “Shuckin’ House,” was where local fishermen would ready the day’s catch and ship it to Boston.
The property, which has stayed in the Collins family with its houses rented out each summer for nearly 100 years, has been designated a historic district by the town as one of the best-preserved examples of a cottage colony.
In April 2023, the Collins family put the property on the market with an asking price of $4,999,000. That August, they dropped the price to $4.5 million, and in March 2024, they further reduced it to $3,995,000.
Vecchione, as a trustee of Coopertown Realty Trust, submitted an offer to purchase the property for $3.25 million with a $10,000 deposit on July 23. Benchmarks within the offer included a deposit of $140,000 to accompany a signed purchase and sale. The projected closing date on the property was December 2024.
On July 26, Thomas and Glenn Collins and Lynn (Collins) Francis accepted the offer in writing. In an effort to move forward, Vecchione sent a cashier’s check for the $140,000 deposit, but the Collinses refused to accept the check and returned it to Vecchione.
Vecchione’s Aug. 27 complaint to the court was handwritten and cited not only the Collinses as defendants but also two real estate brokers who were involved in the prospective sale. Vecchione ended the complaint with a plea to the court “to see through the deceit, deception, tomfoolery and chicanery that the defendants, their legal team and their real estate representation have perpetrated.”
Requesting a jury trial, he also sought $5 million in damages as well as an order from the court requiring the Collinses to sell him the property for the amount he had offered.
At the urging of the judge at Barnstable Superior Court, Vecchione hired a lawyer in September to represent him, and on Sept. 13 attorney Anthony Panebianco of Yarmouth Port, who is with the Boston firm Davis Malm, filed an amended complaint on Vecchione’s behalf, limiting the defendants to Thomas and Glenn Collins and Lynn Francis. In it, Panebianco argued that the Collinses had failed or refused to meet the requirements in the offer to purchase they had signed.
Panebianco wrote that the Collinses were having “seller’s remorse” and demanding items “not negotiated for, nor were they entitled to, including, but not limited to, the schedule of beneficiaries of the Coopertown Realty Trust.”
Attorney Bruce Bierhans, who is representing the Collins family, declined to comment on the family’s hesitation over the purchase-and-sale agreement other than to say there were factors beyond the agreed purchase price.
Vecchione seeks declaratory judgment that the offer to purchase is binding and enforceable, a court decree compelling the Collinses to comply with the requirements in the offer to purchase, and a court order vacating a no-trespass order that currently prohibits Vecchione from going on the Collins cottage property. Panebianco has also asked the court to award attorneys’ fees, costs, and compensatory damages to his client.
Bierhans filed a notice with the court this week that he planned to submit a motion to dismiss Vecchione’s complaint. “Our position is there is no deal,” he said in a phone interview. According to Bierhans, the offer to purchase included a provision that required a review and signoff by attorneys on both sides, which had not been done.
The two sides had been negotiating through their attorneys, but those discussions were brought to an unsuccessful close, according to Bierhans. He said he told Panebianco that “the only way we will continue to negotiate is if he takes down all his Facebook posts.”
Panebianco tried to put a positive spin on his client’s continued posts. “From my perspective, the Facebook posts show how excited he is about the property and being able to preserve a piece of old Cape Cod,” the lawyer said in a phone interview. “It’s unfortunate we’re in litigation, and we remain hopeful we can close on this soon.”
In an email, Vecchione called the request that he take down his posts “a bold ask.” He wrote that he had already removed some of the posts: “I’ve done so twice at their request only for them to thereafter seek to change the terms of the written agreement to their benefit.” And he reiterated his view that the Collinses must close a deal with him: “There will be no third time unless they close on the property as they are legally bound to do.”
The Collins family has decided not to comment on the case, according to Bierhans.
On Dec. 19, the Eastham Board of Health plans to review a plan submitted by engineers hired by the Collinses to replace the cesspools at the cottages with new systems that meet the state’s Title 5 standards. Under the terms of the signed offer, the Collinses would pay for the design phase and Vecchione, if the property is transferred, would be responsible for the installation costs.
Vecchione plans to attend the health board’s meeting and has urged those interested in his condo plan to attend as well. Bierhans said he will also be at the meeting.
