Cantor Fitzgerald CEO sues over blocked Hamptons hoops court

Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick has launched a $56 million legal blitzkrieg against a slew of Southampton Town municipal boards because they won’t let him build a basketball court and a large barn on his 40-acre Bridgehampton property, court papers show.

In a pair of federal lawsuits, the billionaire takes to task the zoning, planning, and farming advisory boards — and their individual members — for refusing to allow the structures on the spread he bought for $15 million in 2003.

“He’s basically saying this is war — he’s had enough,” said one of the sued parties. “When you own a property like that, you don’t like to be told what you can or can’t do on it.”

Howard LutnickPatrick McMullan

While the boards are frequently sued by well-heeled Hamptons homeowners who run afoul of local zoning laws, Lutnick’s targeting of individual members is unusual.

“It’s intimidation,” the source said. “Plain and simple.”

He also has a pair of state cases that are challenging the legality of the decisions against him.

Lutnick filed a $36 million suit against the Southampton Town zoning board last week in Eastern District federal court after they prohibited his application to build a standard hoops court on his massive property.

The finance honcho argues that his purchase of the land came with specific land use rights that included a single-family home and “recreational” uses.

But the zoning board ruled that jumpers and bounce passes are not the kind of recreational uses that the grant had in mind for the sprawling expanse.

“It is our position that a basketball court is not a compatible recreational use of an agriculturally protected area,” said attorney David Arntsen of Devitt Spellman Barrett.

Lutnick also unleashed a $20 million suit against the Southampton Town planning board and farming advisory board earlier this year after they rejected a proposed 11,200-square-foot barn and instead offered a far smaller 2,400-square-foot option.

Cantor Fitzgerald, which once occupied four upper floors at 1 WTC, lost 658 employees to the 9/11 attacks.

Lutnick’s attorney did not return a call for comment.