Haute in the Hamptons

Buying Hamptons real estate has come to symbolize more than a monetary investment. It is an investment into a culture, a state of mind, and a lifestyle that has taken on a life all its own.

By Diane Strecker

Each charming village, shoreline, or esteemed estate area throughout the East End embodies its very own genre. These towns have come to develop individual subcultures that define and personify them. Whether it be Hamptons chic, Montauk cool, or Shelter Island seclusion, everyone seems to want a piece of the East End. Just an hour’s commute from the financial hub of the world, some of the most valuable, distinctive, and sought-after properties anywhere are nestled in this virtual paradise. The unique compilation of the landscape, diverse bodies of water, and outlying islands creates an atmosphere now recognized as the epitome of town and country. A perfect blend of geography and social sophistication conjures an extraordinary lucrative combination, translating to what realtors call the ultimate location, location, location!

[highlight_text]  Project Real Estate speculates that this has the possibility of being the highest grossing sale of a single parcel during 2007. [/highlight_text]

Southampton Project

It’s a Friday evening and the start of the summer season in the Hamptons. The traffic on the only route east is literally parked as the weekly exodus from the city to the Hamptons commences. Frustrated drivers can hear the familiar thump, thump, thump in the distance, as private aircrafts whisk the exceptionally affluent high over the stopped cars, descending to the heliports on Meadow Lane in Southampton.

The exclusive estate area in Southampton is one of the most desirous on the East End; the scarcity of land on its oceanfront has driven values to an all-time high. In 2006, a 4-acre plot sold for $20 million, setting a precedent for the remaining waterfront parcels and making it evident that buyers are willing to pay whatever it takes to acquire this prominent address.

Finding, listing, and selling an 8-acre parcel of land with four hundred feet of ocean frontage on Southampton’s prestigious Meadow Lane is no small task amidst this fierce market, but according to Kevin Sneddon, CEO of Project Real Estate, they have done just that. The broker confirmed that another of their Meadow Lane oceanfront estate parcels in Southampton has recently gone to contract. The 7.5-acre property, positioned directly on the brink of the Atlantic and backing up to Shinnecock Bay, has spectacular views of both. Although the sale price of the $39.75 million listing has not yet been disclosed, it will reportedly transfer very near the asking price. Sneddon shared that the deal on this extraordinary piece, located in the estate section, was made just two months after locating and securing the listing. Project Real Estate speculates that this has the possibility of being the highest grossing sale of a single parcel during 2007.

Last season, this same brokerage came out of the gates running, selling 900 Meadow Lane, an oceanfront estate in Southampton, for $26.5 million in January of 2006. Project Real Estate also has a 5-acre estate on the Southampton oceanfront that is available for $31 million.

Montauk Premiums

Montauk is not only the surfing mecca of the northeast but also one of the premier yachting destinations in the entire country. The harbor is among the busiest marine thoroughfares on the Eastern seaboard. Countless boats of all sizes and standing will pass through the jetties and into the channel this summer, as onlookers dining topside wave from upper-decks. Squawking gulls work the airspace above the commercial fishing boats that come and go throughout the day. The yachts file by the fish docks with their headings set for the Montauk Yacht Club.

The Montauk Yacht Club and Resort is one of the select area facilities where ocean crafts of considerable size take haven. This sprawling 35-acre resort and marina on the remote Star Island is comprised of 232 boat slips that allow for yachts up to 175 feet in length. Its accommodations include 107 guest rooms and 23 villas that speak of the original landmark Tudor style, a building footprint left by famed developer Carl Fisher, whose plan to transform Montauk into the Miami Beach of the north in 1928 is identified here, much as it is in the legendary Montauk Manor. Mariners come to enjoy docking privileges, waterfront dining at Lighthouse Grill, treatments at the La Bella Vita Spa, and use of the state of the art fitness club. Two outdoor and one indoor pool and tennis courts are also spread throughout the grounds.

It is no wonder that when Oak Tree Capital placed this resort on the market it was scooped up by Island Global Yachting. The Florida-based concern that specializes in elite marine properties throughout the world acquired the site for $34 million. The new owner, Andrew Farkas, not only plans to preserve the landmark, but is dedicated to reviving its legacy and restoring it to the former glory of the 1920’s. The resort has been designed for the highly discriminating boater, and provides a welcome respite for large vessels bound for Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and other New England ports. The club has been ranked as one of the top ten marine facilities in North America, the Caribbean, and Mexico by Yachting Magazine.

Shelter on Shelter Island

The historic East End mansion Shorewood Manor on Shelter Island, built in 1873, speaks of days gone by. The stately manor home positioned high atop a cliff on Wards Point has kept watch on the clear blue vista of the Peconic Bay for more than one hundred years. The 8 acres on which it sits are remnants of the more than one hundred original acres owned by Anternas Ward, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist whose bloodline runs back as far as George Washington. The landscape is rare; no other waterfront properties are in its league. The manor hails from the highest point of a bluff, and the land gradually slopes down across the wide lawn to sea level where a tiny honeymoon cottage sits on the brink of the beach.

Today, the 12-bedroom mansion belongs to a local islander, investor and entrepreneur Christopher Knight, who spent summers as a boy playing on the property. “I am living my childhood dream,” he says while playing catch with his son on the vast lawn. He purchased the sleeping estate in April of this year for an unbelievable $10 million, and is now in the process of breathing love and life back into the old place as it awaits a deserving buyer.

The estate’s three-story observation tower spills 360 degrees of unrivaled views of the bay, most points of the island, and the Hamptons mainland. Harry DiOrio of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Sag Harbor office, who is a childhood friend of Knight as well as his broker, has the $33 million listing. The realtor has dubbed the estate as the ultimate fixer-upper. “The land alone is easily worth $3 million per acre,” says DiOrio, as he fondly reminisces childhood antics that took place on the property with Knight. “The property stands on its own, as there are no state of the art features, no media room, no spa.” Instead, there is a sunroom jutting off the main house, and onto an expansive lawn where the sun has risen and set through its floor-to-ceiling windows for more than a century. At Shorewood Manor, there is no need for technology when white yachts performing on a denim-blue bay provide their own brand of theater.

Open House, Open Bar

On a sunny May afternoon in Water Mill, hors d’ourves are passed amidst a well-dressed crowd as Hamptons brokers jump-start their summer season. The high-rolling realtors circulate through the crowd sipping local Nork Fork wine at the patio wine bar and talking up their listings. Cocktails are mixed poolside. Hushed deals are abuzz in the mansion that young Russian heiress Anna Anisimova rented last season. It is just one of the many estates that are occupied by one of the many celebrities and socialites that frequent the Hamptons each year.

Wide, white smiles, brush cheek kisses, and polite exchanges clearly display the social prowess of savvy professionals working in one of the most competitive markets in the world, where the term “open house” is often followed by “event”, leading to full-scale real estate parties being in vogue. Realtors who possess an instinctual understanding of the Hamptons’ culture know that promoting a property is so much more than an old-fashioned open house. The Corcoran Group’s East End division is well known for such functions; the debut fundraiser Corcoran Cares at the Cobb Lane estate of Glenn Simon would be no exception. The 170 guests were greeted outside the grand foyer and invited to stroll the grounds and peruse the interior of the stunning $19.5 million mansion in Water Mill. Checkbooks came out for five local charities, raising $25,000 for various causes, at the same time promoting one of the agency’s prize listings. The 8,500 square foot main house has dual staircases leading to 7 bedrooms and 10 baths. A three-bedroom guesthouse, pool and pool house are set inside two estate-section acres. The property is listed with Corcoran’s Senior Vice President of the East Hampton office, Gary DePersia.

The market on Eastern Long Island is a unique one that remains an entity unto itself, virtually unaffected in an otherwise ever-shifting industry. There has been endless speculation to the bubble bursting theory circulating through the real estate world of late, yet it is quite obvious to anyone that has tracked the Hamptons market closely that the only bubble on the East End of Long Island is the one that high-end Hamptons market sits securely inside.