The Banksy of Birdhouses

If you are a reader of Hamptons Real Estate Showcase, chances are that you are well aware that Real Estate continues to be the hottest topic of discussion on the East End. Land… “they’re not making any more of it”. Every square foot is accounted for and controlled with Permits, Regulations and laws about usage. Google searches, Facebook, blogs, Instagram and discussion groups are filled with stories of searches for the right place to call home in the Hamptons. We humans are not alone in this. Our local birds who choose not to fly South for the winter, share our human need for a protected residence in the colder months. The Internet has been filled recently with Tweets and blogs about the creativity and passion of a small home builder named Michael Cinque.
When he is not minding his retail store, Michael is an owner of Sag Harbor’s LT Burger and Sag Pizza, an agent for Saunders & Associates Real Estate, and a volunteer in the Amagansett Fire Department. He is also a supporter and Board Member of a multitude of local non-profit organizations, including East End Hospice, Share the Harvest, the Garden Club of EH, EECO Farm, Peconic Land Trust, Guild Hall, the Amagansett Life-Saving Station Museum and more. But it is his role as owner of Amagansett Village Wine & Spirits that has provided him with the golden opportunity to combine his two strongest passions, and to fulfill his dreams, locating the finest wines for his customers, and transforming the boxes that contain them into unique residences for our aviary friends.
According to Michael, only the very best wines come in unique wooden boxes, perfect for transformation in his basement woodworking shop into custom birdhouses. As he says, “I make sawdust.”
So far “residences” have been placed, Johnny Appleseed-style, around Amagansett and Sag Harbor. There are twelve custom homes in Amagansett, including one at the Amagansett Beach Association Beach on Indian Wells Highway. The A.B.A. is supervised by the legendary John Ryan, Sr., Founder of the Hampton Lifeguard Association and East Hampton Town’s Official Trainer and Lifeguard. John welcomed the addition of the beachfront home. A white, ocean view home was commissioned by the Sabin Family of Bluff Road. On your birdhouse tour, it’s worth slowing down at the intersection of Skimhampton Road and Further Lane, to see one of Michael’s creations. Thanks to his creative efforts, there is now a bird’s eye view of play at the Amagansett Village Improvement Society’s tennis courts on Atlantic Avenue.
Michael promises that he will be “branching out” in the area in the future, and that he will be creating an official tour map.
If you happen upon a tiny “Property for Sale” sign on a custom birdhouse home in your travels, chances are that the builder was Michael Cinque, often called in the art world “The Banksy of Birdhouses”.