A closer look at Stefan Soloviev’s North Fork land portfolio

For decades, the North Fork has relied on a careful balance of farming, preservation and limited development to hold back the forces that have transformed much of Long Island.

That balance, and the question of who controls the region’s remaining open land, came into sharp focus in October when Stefan Soloviev, one of the nation’s largest private landowners, advanced plans for a 372-acre conservation subdivision in Cutchogue.

The proposed subdivision would preserve 267 acres of farmland and include 47 new houses, 18 of them luxury waterfront lots on the Long Island Sound. The reaction on local social media was swift and, much of it, sharply opposed to new development.

“North Fork is the new South Fork!” one resident wrote. “Congratulations.”

Another responded, “Do not let this be done,” while a third added, “Geez. Develop it all. I give up.”

A North Fork Sun investigation found that Soloviev’s holdings are largely made up of farmland and permanently preserved acreage. While he has said he owns more than 1,000 acres on the North Fork, a detailed review of public records shows just how extensive and complex those holdings are.

Using tax bills, GIS maps and GPS location data, the Sun was able to identify 49 parcels — though that figure is almost certainly incomplete. Many Soloviev-owned properties are held under multiple LLCs, often named after the address of the parcel itself. The proposed Cutchogue subdivision alone involves 14 distinct LLCs. The only consistent link among all the identified properties is where the tax bills are sent: Solow Realty’s West 57^th St. headquarters in Manhattan.

Soloviev declined interview requests placed with his Mattituck attorney, but a spokesperson for the Soloviev Group told the North Fork Sun in a statement late last year that “more land will be preserved in the proposed Colusa conservation subdivision than in any other comparable effort on the North Fork. We remain committed to long-term land stewardship and the area’s agricultural heritage.”

Across Southold, Riverhead and Shelter Island, Soloviev controls at least 49 parcels totaling just over 1,119 acres. About 340 acres (30% of the identified portfolio) fall under some form of acquired development rights (ADRs), whether through town-level, county-level or previously purchased development-rights restrictions. Once sold, these rights permanently prohibit housing or commercial structures on the land. (Soloviev also owns land on the South Fork, which is not included in this analysis.)

Roughly 862 acres — more than three-quarters of the North Fork holdings identified by the Sun — are classified as agricultural. These include working farms and vineyards, orchards, field-crop parcels, non-muckland and large tracts along Sound Avenue and Oregon Road. Although many of these parcels retain development rights, their zoning — typically R-80, R-200 or Agricultural Conservation — restricts density. Soloviev also owns a 52 acre lot in Southold designated recreational open space.

Meanwhile, 24.35 acres, or 2.17%, fall under residential uses. These include medium and low-density parcels along County Road 48 and Route 25 in Southold and scattered small holdings in commercial corridors where residential uses are permitted.

The remaining 180.32 acres, or roughly 16%, fall under commercial and mixed-use classifications. These include the Chequit Inn on Shelter Island, marina and retail parcels in Shelter Island Heights and funeral-home and commercial buildings in Southold.

Soloviev’s North Fork land is only a small fraction of a far larger portfolio, much of it agricultural. Last year, he was the 14th largest landowner in the U.S., with 629,000 acres nationwide, according to Land Report magazine. (Even his family is outsized: in 2023, the Colorado Sun reported that the Soloviev, now 51, has 22 children.)

Through his Crossroads Agriculture and related entities, Soloviev has approximately 400,000 acres under active cultivation and dryland farming operations in Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico, with additional land Texas and New York. The western operations produce grain crops and include cattle ranching. 

In New York City real estate, Soloviev’s most prominent asset is the Solow Building on 57th Street, a landmark Midtown Manhattan office tower he retained after his father, developer Sheldon Solow, died in 2020. In 2022, Soloviev Group sold most of the family’s Manhattan residential holdings for approximately $1.75 billion, but the 9 West 57th Street office building remains a central part of his city real estate.

‘What is the plan?’

In an interview, Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski said he understands why proposals like Colusa, involving dozens of new homes, can alarm residents — but he argued that conservation subdivisions are what the town’s preservation framework was designed to encourage.

“I know it’s a shock when you see that many houses, but when you look at the preservation — this what [Southold’s land preservation strategy] is set up to do,” Krupski said. “We set that up a long time ago. If you had a 20 or 30-acre farm and you came to do [a conservation subdivision], people would be very happy.”

The supervisor emphasized that the loss of farmland is irreversible.

“People talk about food security, but they never take it all the way back to the production,” he said. “Food has to be grown somewhere, so if you lose the land — look at the rest of Long Island. It was all good farmland all the way through to Queens.”

Long Island Farm Bureau executive director Bill Zalaker said that as Soloviev has acquired more and more parcels over time, “there’s always been a bit a concern or fear in the agricultural community about what his intent is with the land.” Still, Zalaker noted, Soloviev operates large agricultural enterprises elsewhere.

He said the Farm Bureau’s position ultimately centers on landowner rights.

While acknowledging that it can be “scary” for farmers to see so much land controlled by a single owner, he said the organization supports a landowner’s right to decide whether land is developed, preserved or sold, just as any multigenerational farm family might face those same choices at retirement.

From that standpoint, Zalaker said he has not seen evidence of Soloviev pushing outsized development, but rather pursuing projects that align with the region’s long-standing preservation strategy.

“I would hope that Soloviev or whomever the management team is would remain in close contact with the farming community and the local towns and try and work on this together,” he said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for both sides.”

Where Zalaker expressed the greatest concern was cost. If Soloviev is willing to preserve large blocks of land, he said, the challenge shifts to towns and counties to raise the funds needed to purchase development rights and complete those preservation deals.

Some key players in land use issues on the North Fork declined to comment on the record about the Soloviev land portfolio.

Bob DeLuca, longtime president of the Group for the East End, said he sees Soloviev’s expanding land portfolio less as a de facto threat than as a high-stakes variable, which could produce unusually strong conservation outcomes or unusually large development pressure.

“From the 40,000-foot perspective, a very large landowner — it can go well, or it can go not so well,” DeLuca said, noting that scale fundamentally changes what is possible. Unlike a three-acre lot, he said, a thousand-acre holding can be planned comprehensively, allowing development to be clustered while permanently protecting large swaths of open space.

“Big parcels give you a lot of flexibility,” he said. “You may be able to protect 80% of a parcel — something you just can’t do on small lots.”

ACREAGE

ASSESSED MARKET VALUE

ACREAGE BY TOWN

ACQUIRED DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS (ADRs)

But DeLuca said that the same scale becomes a liability if an owner seeks maximum yield and the town lacks the staffing, funding or political will to enforce its standards.

Southold, he said, has “reasonably protective zoning” and tools to push for “70 or 80% preservation and density reduction, [but] it doesn’t have a bottomless pit of money” to purchase development rights. He said that outcomes ultimately depend on discretionary boards like the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals insisting on strict compliance with the town’s comprehensive plan and environmental review requirements.

“Part of the mystery here is: what is the motivation, what is the plan, what does the [Soloviev] family think it wants to do?” he said.

“I don’t know these people. They haven’t done anything. I’m going to assume the best until I see some project details that make me think otherwise,” DeLuca said, while acknowledging the stress communities feel when they are left “waiting to know when” a major proposal might arrive, only to be told later, “It’s too late. You should have come here six months ago.”

DeLuca said that the strongest safeguard is consistent enforcement of a town’s values. Southold and Shelter Island are “the most vulnerable because it’s where stuff is left,” he said.

“We’re at the thin end of the wedge.”

The test is whether Southold’s comprehensive plan functions as an active mandate or merely “a comprehensive plan on a shelf that says all the right things,” he said.

When residents show up, DeLuca said, boards tend to make more defensible decisions.

“Democracy still does seem to work, if you show up often enough.”