Sheep Pond Road Home In Foreclosure Now Condemned Due To Erosion

A house on Sheep Pond Road along Nantucket's southwestern shore that is set to be sold at a foreclosure auction next Monday has been condemned by the town due to severe erosion.

With part of its deck now hanging over the edge of the coastal bank, the home at 16 Sheep Pond Road was declared unfit for human habitation on Monday by the Nantucket Health Department, and power was disconnected by National Grid.

"As of yesterday, 16 Sheep Pond Road has been deemed an environmental emergency due to the severe erosion to the property and the dwelling in imminent danger of collapsing over the bank," said John Hedden, the Nantucket Health Department's chief environmental health officer. "Due to this situation, the dwelling is unfit for human habitation and will be condemned. I spoke with National Grid yesterday and they had received a request to disconnect the power at 16 Sheep Pond Road."

On Tuesday night, the Nantucket Historic District Commission voted unanimously to allow the structure to be moved or demolished based on a request from Hedden.

"From the lender's point of view, they'd like to be able to pick it up and relocate it onto an adjacent lot as far away from this advancing erosion as they can," attorney Saray Alger said. "If they can't do that, they would have to demolish it, but they don't want to do that. They don't want it to end up on the beach, is the major issue at the moment...At the moment, it would go up on cribbing so it doesn't fall over. The bank is under the deck at this point. It's bad."

The house at 16 Sheep Pond Road was built in 1982, making it a non-contributing structure to the island's historic district. 

The property is one of a pair of waterfront lots on Sheep Pond Road that sold together just two years ago for $3.9 million. Owned by Slacktide, a Boston-based real estate development firm with offices on Nantucket and Kiawah Island, the properties at 14 and 16 Sheep Pond Road totaling more than four acres will be auctioned off by the Paul E. Saperstein Co. on Monday, Dec. 16th at noon.

In another strange turn of events, police were called to the property at 14 Sheep Pond Road Tuesday morning when a man was found inside the home. The trespasser was allegedly a squatter who had come to the island from Quebec, Canada, hoping to take advantage of the foreclosure action on the properties, according to a source with knowledge of the incident.

"We responded to 14 Sheep Pond Road because the caretaker had found a car on the property that was out of place and had discovered the doors that were typically unlocked were locked," Nantucket Police Lt. Angus MacVicar said. "We responded and knocked on the door, but no one answered. We didn’t anticipate anyone would. The caretaker unlocked the door and we were greeted by a person who was actively trespassing on the property."

While the owner and caretaker did not want to press charges, MacVicar said, the individual was served with a no-trespass notice and sent on his way.

On Tuesday night, workers began the process of taking down the deck attached to the home and in preparation for a potential move. 

Slacktide, which owns and is developing numerous properties on Nantucket, appears to be walking away from its multi-million-dollar investment. It's unclear if the threat of erosion - which has claimed other homes on Sheep Pond Road and prompted a few to sell at bargain-basement prices - was a factor in the two properties going into foreclosure.

Slacktide's main office number is "temporarily unavailable," and the company is facing numerous lawsuits and small claims in Nantucket District Court and Nantucket Superior Court from other island businesses in the trades over contractual disputes in which Slacktide allegedly failed to pay monies owed.

Property records show the two properties sold in November 2020 for $1.3 million amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Less than two years later, a limited liability company registered to Fodiman purchased 14 and 16 Sheep Pond Road for $3.9 million in April 2022.

Each lot includes a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom home with first and second decks. Both were being rented for $16,000 per week during the summer.

The foreclosure is being pursued by Clinton Savings Bank, a central Massachusetts lender, which granted a $2.9 million mortgage to Slacktide's LLC for the property shortly before the sale.

Sheep Pond Road has seen a number of remarkable real estate deals, demolitions, and homes lost to the waves in recent years as a result of significant erosion along the dirt road.

In October 2023, the house at 21 Sheep Pond Road was demolished after a storm undercut the southeast corner of the home, causing a deck to collapse and a condemnation order by the town.

In March 2024, the home at 4 and 6 Sheep Pond Road was sold for just $600,000 after a combination of severe erosion and a motivated seller led to the original asking price of $2.2 million being slashed down to six figures.

Just months later, in June 2024, a $2 million house at 28 Sheep Pond Road was sold for just $200,000 as the owners raced to strike a deal before it was claimed by the waves.

Fourteen years ago, the late Gene Ratner lost his long battle with erosion when his home at 19 Sheep Pond Road collapsed into the ocean. Today, the entirety of Ratner’s property is now submerged.