By Katy Savage, Standard Staff
READING — Some remember the tiny triangle, where Tyson Road met Park Circle Road, as a space used for Fourth of July celebrations and other events.
“It was originally a public gathering ground,” said one longtime resident who declined to give her name. “It was central to the village of South Reading.”
It was town-owned, residents say, but when the property switched hands, the public land was forgotten.
Recently, the select board adopted the land, then quit claimed the 1/10acre parcel to Reading resident and prominent oil trader Andrew Hall, who purchased the property nearby from a resident who lost their home in a February fire.
“This was the best way for the town to handle it,” select board member Jim Peplau said. “Nobody caught the problem in time.”
Hall now owns about 2,400 acres in Reading — about a 12th of the total town land. It’s the most of any single landowner.
Residents interviewed have declined to speak about Hall with their names attached. Some don’t want to talk about him at all. Some locals fear offending him.
“Too much power in one person’s name,” said the longtime resident, “and should he choose to abuse his power, it could be disastrous to this area,” she said, adding, “Would you want to offend the biggest taxpayer… in town?”
Hall is buying up the town.
He has about 20 parcels of land valued at $13 million. He buys chunks and then combines them, making them eligible for the state’s current use program. Almost all his land is in current use, which in 2014, reduced his assessment by $6 million, records show.
“He buys a lot of continuous property to his land, what motivates him to buy, I have no idea,” Lister John Fike said.
Hall has been referred to as an oil “God” for his successful investments. He began trading oil in the 1980s. Hall’s name splashed across national headlines when Citigroup awarded him a $100 million bonus in 2008 for his success — the same year the federal government bailed out Citigroup for $45 billion. In 2008, Hall founded the hedge fund, Astenbeck Capital Management. The hedge fund, based in Connecticut, has gone up and down since the purchase. It was valued $4.8 billion in 2013, but it fell 36 percent in 2015 — the worst in the hedge fund’s history, Reuters reported. It fell another 4 percent in January 2016. But the hedge fund’s profits rebounded, up 24 percent from the start of the year through May until falling again 16 percent in August.
Hall has remained committed to the oil industry, appearing hopeful to investors that it will bounce back, according to reports. He also continues to buy land in Reading.
“He’s certainly improved the image of the town,” Lister Richard Sullivan said.
All of Hall’s properties in Reading are in pristine condition, many say. The locals don’t argue that his presence has improved Reading’s appearance. In some cases, he’s been generous. In 1994, Hall gave the town 4.5 acres on Route 106 to expand the school building.
Hall buys more property in Reading every year. Most of the land he owns is on Tyson Road and Grasshopper Lane (both of which are near his house).
It’s unclear why the oil investor has chosen to invest in Reading.
The people close to Hall are protective of his privacy. A woman who answered the phone at their home on Weld Cemetery Road said the Halls don’t give interviews.
Some have said the Halls live in Reading in the summers. The Halls appear to have a home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Sometimes Hall pays more than property is worth, sometimes he pays less.
Last December, Hall bought a log cabin with four acres from Jeremy and Gale Cross on Tyson Road, paying $190,000. Hall bought almost an acre of land from Heather Finlayson at 544 Route 106 in November 2015, paying $220,000. In March 2015 he bought 1.6 acres on Tyson Road, paying $77,000 for a shack Walter and Mary Wilkins owned.
Locals have differing reasons for selling their land to Hall.
Paul Mendoza sold Hall his house in 2010.
Mendoza’s father had just died and Mendoza, who grew up in the house, needed the money. He wanted the transaction to move quickly and knew Hall could provide a quick solution.
“They gave me my asking price, so it made it pretty simple,” said Mendoza, who lives in Connecticut now.
The house was sold for about $230,000, which was its market value, Mendoza said.
The house sat on three acres of land near the entrance of Hall’s driveway. It has since been taken down.
Some say Hall is gobbling up the affordable housing. Records indicate that Hall bought mobile trailers in the mid-2000s and took them down. Some say by taking down houses he lowers what he pays in property taxes, though listers say Hall’s presence hasn’t negatively impacted the grand list.
“A lot of the properties that he bought were properties that the locals could afford and now they can’t afford to live here,” said resident Carol Geise.
A 1815 brick home was destroyed by fire in February 2016 on Tyson Road in Reading. Firefighters fought through sub-zero temperatures. The home was still smoldering the day after the fire on Sunday. (Katy Savage Photo)
Hall paid $200,000 for the land and the burnt house — $5,000 more than the grand list value.
“That was a very nice gesture,” Fike said.
There are mixed feelings about Hall’s gestures.
David Rushford lived in the house, which his mother owned until she sold it to Hall.
“I hate this,” said Rushford, who was injured trying rescue his belongings in the fire in the winter.
“We’re very broken hearted over this house being gone,” said Geise, a neighbor who is allowing Rushford and his wife to live on their property for the time being.
Hall came to Reading in 1989 and acquired a former farm on Weld Cemetery Road, now a 569-acre parcel where his home is, surrounded by his farm, Newhall Farm.
Newhall Farm has a private apple orchard that produces iced cider and apple brandy as well as honey, soaps and maple syrup. Hall has also established the Hall Art Foundation, acquiring a former cow barn, an old stone house and a machine shed with a leaky roof on Route 106 and turning it into a public art facility. The foundation is a nonprofit with $34 million in assets. The foundation is open to the public during the warmer months and rotates exhibits and sculptures by acclaimed artists. Hall and his wife Christine contributed $7.8 million to the foundation in 2014, records indicate.
Hall put locals Ted and Linda Fondulas in charge of his Reading operations about five years ago.
The Halls were frequent clients of their restaurant, formerly known as Hemingway’s, in Killington.
“I think they basically understood us, that we had a particular standard,” Ted said. “That’s where the relationship was built.”
After 30 years in business, Ted and Linda closed their four-star restaurant, which was in an 1860 farmat house, in 2011 after damage from Tropical Storm Irene.
It went to foreclosure sale for $55,000 in May 2013. The Fondulases owed $33,813 in back taxes and had two loans totaling $295,000 according to reports. That’s about the time they started working for the Halls.
“We did some consulting and we all sort of got along and they said, ‘Do you want to take over full time?’ And we said sure,” Ted said.
The Hall Art Foundation and Newhall Farm are separate entities. Linda is the Vermont director of operations of the Hall Art Foundation. Ted manages the farm.
“We tried to up the standards of the whole aesthetic of the farm,” Ted said.
There are about four full-time employees and eight seasonal employees at the farm.
“We hope that the town of Reading gets improved in many ways,” Linda said. “There’s no long-term plan, they take everything step by step.”
When asked about the Halls, Linda declined to answer.
“That’s too personal,” she said.
This article first appeared in the September 9, 2016 edition of the Vermont Standard.