Author: Laura Euler

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Aaaah, it doesn’t get much better than this. Designed by Robert AM Stern, the former dean of the Yale School of Architecture, and completed in 1975, this house is a landmark of postmodern design, worthy of note by such critics as Vincent Scully and Paul Goldberger. Yes! This means it’s time to impress your guests with your knowledge of postwar American architecture!

Save that till after dinner. Everyone will be in a great mood after a long, hard day lounging around the pool sipping drinks or on Main Beach. Then you can modestly point out the views of Hook Pond, which this property abuts, of course the ocean, and even the Maidstone Club’s seventh hole.

The house was originally designed for Norman and Carol Mercer, an artist and a landscape designer. As people will, the owners had gradually changed their house over the years. After their deaths, the couple next door, Jeffrey Gates and R. Michael Moran, worried that the house would be demolished by a spec builder, so they bought it intending to use it as a guest house.

The pair then restored the place to the original specs, in accordance with the Robert AM Stern Foundation, removing a greenhouse and art studio. The clean lines that Stern designed are now clearly evident, especially the octagon shapes, a favorite of Stern’s. For instance, in the upper living room (octagonal), Gates and Moran added an octagonal rug attributed to Stern and a smoked-glass coffee table by the architect. Smoked glass–so 70s! (Probably not a good idea to announce to your guests you’ll be having a key party later.)

So, down to the nitty gritty: the house is 6,263-square-feet, with seven bedrooms and seven baths. 2.2 acres of land provide for plenty of privacy (not to mention a nice view of Main Beach fireworks). Interested? MD-LD will run you $250,000, or even better, rent all year round for $395,000. Mike Moran at Elliman has the listing.

• 33 Ocean Avenue, East Hampton [E]

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Remember Briar Patch, the amazingly large, amazingly expensive property that hit the market in 2014? Of course you do. It was asking $140 million and was (and is) owned by Chris Whittle, probably best known for Channel One. It’s been off the market for a few years but now is back, asking $95 million. Bespoke has the listing.

If it doesn’t sell fairly soon, however, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s office might force an auction. Whittle owes millions of dollars to Avenues Global Holdings, a private school chain he helped to found, which lent him the money. In 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported, Avenues said it might force a sale to try to recoup $5.8 million Whittle still owes.

The land totals 11.2 acres, but has been subdivided into 7.5 and 3.7 acre parcels. It’s right on Georgica Pond. The c. 1931 main residence, known as “Shepard Krech House” (gesundheit) is 10,300 square feet. Homey and attractive, the house was renovated back in 1990 by Peter Marino and still looks fresh as a daisy. It boasts a three story living room, sunken library, and third-story gym.

The really charming guest house was built in 1990, and offers a living room, kitchen and four bedrooms. Of course the grounds are incredible, with mature trees, gardens, a tennis court, and a 60′ pool with cabana.

Is someone going to be able to pick up a bargain? Stay tuned.

• 90 and 100 Briar Patch Road, East Hampton [B]

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The former home of Roone Arledge, who basically invented the modern televised sports landscape wtih a show called Monday Night Football, has sold. 382 Barons Lane, Southampton, was listed in 2017 asking an eye-watering $55 million. In November, the oceanfront property closed for $38 million, a hefty discount.

Why did the property take so long to sell? After all, there are 4.5 acres of land, including 430 feet of direct oceanfront, and views to farm fields to the north. We think the house itself was holding it back. For an 8,225 square foot house, the rooms all feel closed off and small. Add to that interiors that are beige, cream, taupe, and oh right, more beige, a kitchen straight out of the first George Bush administration, and you have not what high-end buyers are looking for these days. The place seems not to have been updated a jot since being built in 1991.

So will the bulldozers be marching along to Southampton? We wouldn’t be surprised. What do you think? Let us know in the anonymous comments below.

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The old church on Madison Street in Sag Harbor has been through a lot in almost 200 years of existence. Built by the Methodists in 1832 originally on High Street, and moved to its present location in 1864, the building was sold and deconsecrated in 2008 when the congregation moved to something more modern. After that, the building struggled to find a use, with elaborate plans to turn it into a private residence and exorbitant asking prices (at one time $23.5 million) eventually coming to nothing. In June 2018, local heroes Eric Fischl and April Gornik purchased the property, selling their SoHo lofts to pay for it, with plans to turn the church, now known as the Church, into a community arts center. Art and writing and culture have long been an important part of Sag Harbor history, and this will be its new center.

Architect Lee Skolnick, who’d worked on projects for the couple before, donated much of his fee for drawing up the designs. Soaring interior spaces pay tribute to the original beams and framing, not disturbing the historic fabric of the building, while modern touches, such as a glass elevator, create an interplay between past and present.

One of the most striking features are the large, plain windows, each of which features a Sag Harbor resident painted by Fischl. (Below, Langston Hughes.) A modern take on the saints usually depicted in stained glass windows.

Inside the spacious volumes are simple, cozy spots to invite thought and discussion. There are on-site accommodation for artists-in-residence, space for creating art, exhibition galleries, a resource library, and a public garden.

The new library (above) is within the original belfry, underneath its historic bell. Below, the original stone foundation and exposed beams are highlights of the new artists’ workshops.

This project is an outstanding example of adaptive reuse of an historic building. Well done and congratulations to all involved.

Don’t believe the hype that everyone in the Hamptons lives in a megamansion. Some very nice freestanding houses can still be found for under a million. Let’s take a look at some, and at the end, vote for your favorite!

First up is 9 Bruce Lane, East Hampton (main picture). In the Maidstone Beach area of Springs, this property offers two super bijou cottages for just $775,000. They’re both renovated (or being renovated) and are set on 0.41 of an acre, with a total of 1200 square feet and two bedrooms and two baths. Live in one, rent out the other for income, we say.

 

Next, take a look at 47 School Street, Hampton Bays. As you can see above, it’s been nicely renovated with all new mechanicals. Asking $779,000, the house offers four bedrooms and three baths, and is set on 0.32 of an acre.

 

Yep, this cape ticks all the “Grandma’s house” boxes: plastic left on lampshade, old school TV, crocheted afghan, motion furniture. In the Clearwater section of Springs, 6 Pembroke Drive is asking $799,000. Obviously a few buckets of white paint are needed to update the two-bedroomed cottage (although we dig the blue bathroom), but with almost half an acre of land, there’s plenty of room for a pool.

 

Doesn’t 38 Lincoln Drive, in North Sea, look like a doll’s house? Inside, the teensy place (just 624 feet) has been cutely updated. Asking $899,000, the property is down a private road for privacy. With 0.36 of an acre of land, there’s room for expansion if desired.

 

Finally, how about waterfront on Little Fresh Pond? 8 Justan Ave, Southampton, is awfully titchy at 744 square feet and 0.12 of an acre, but the views are just stunning. Asking $769,000, there is one bedroom and two baths in the cottage.

The long-raging legal fight over ownership and access to a 4,000-foot-long stretch of beach in East Hampton Town exploded again yesterday, according to 27East. A panel of state appellate court judges threw out the 2016 ruling that dismissed the lawsuit filed by oceanfront property owners in Amagansett and Napeague; the judges ruled that ownership of “Truck Beach” rests with the plaintiffs. East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc then stated that the town would go ahead with its plan to condemn the land in the first step of seizing ownership of the land via eminent domain.

The story till now: the dispute is between Amagansett/Napeague homeowners who claim to own the beach in front of their houses, up to the high water line, and the town, Trustees, and residents who say that the beach is public and they can drive on it. The lawsuit, filed in 2009, states that the various homeowners purchased the land in question at various times. The 2016 ruling threw out the suit, and the homeowners appealed.

At issue is a deed dated 1882 selling 1,000 acres to Arthur Benson from the Trustees of the Freeholders and Commonalty of the Town of East Hampton. The deed contains the following:

And also except and reserved to the inhabitants of the Town of East Hampton the right to land fish boats and netts to spread the netts on the adjacent sands and care for the fish and material as has been customary heretofore on the South Shore of the Town lying Westerly of these conveyed premises.

This, says the town, indicates that the public must have access to the beach. Homeowners say the deed gives ownership to themselves and only allows access for fishing, not 4x4s.

So what’s next? A fight over the true value of the beach; condemnation would require the town to pay the homeowners for the land. Homeowners say the land is worth tens of millions; the town says not, since the land is not developable. The town may also appeal this decision.

• Court Halts ‘Truck Beach’  [27E]

It’s February 2nd, a day after the East End was pounded with snow and wind. It’s 40 degrees out, drizzly and gray. Tomorrow’s forecast: drizzly and gray. Ah, the glamorous Hamptons in the off-season.

But don’t, friends and neighbors, get your hopes up too high when you head to Citarella to pick up a few trifles. Reports Vanity Fair, “demand for truffles, uni, and caviar has ‘doubled to tripled’ due to ‘a different type of winter than ever before,’ said a Citarella spokesperson. At times, she said, the store has sold out completely.” SHOCK HORROR. (Seriously, we’re not surprised. We were in Citarella East Hampton on Christmas Eve and the queue for caviar was a dozen people.) Can’t someone fly in some emergency truffles via Blade or something? What’s the point of being a rich Hamptonite if our desires are not immediately met?

Also apparently running low? Ammunition. We too love hunting the Poors for sport, but we’d like to remind fellow citizens that you’re supposed to use blanks. It’s bad form otherwise.

Not running low? Septic systems. Apparently cityfolk, with their fancy sewers, don’t know that their country pile’s sanitary system periodically needs a call from the stool bus. Systems are backing up and lawns are seeping. “Quackenbush said the company has hauled 30% more waste from residential tanks since March 2020,” reports Vanity Fair.

And if things weren’t bad enough, East Hampton Village beach parking permits–free to village residents–are now $500 for the hoi polloi, up from $400 last year. Fumed one homeowner, “They are nickel-and-diming all the joy out of the community.” Listen, folks, let’s all just relax and have some lumpfish roe on our blinis. Summer is coming.

It’s no secret that real estate sales in the Hamptons are at fever pitch; less often reported on is the robust rental market. To see how much rentals have appreciated in the past few years, we decided to compare 2013 rentals with what’s on offer today.

Back in the day, we wrote an annual series of blog posts called The Summer Rental Roundup in which modest, average, and expensive rentals for each town were chosen to feature. In Montauk, a 600 square foot waterfront cottage was $13,200, Memorial Day to Labor Day. The only thing we could find comparable now was someone’s Ditch Plains basement, 650 square feet, for $16,000. There’s also a condo, 675 square feet, for $21,000.

390 Old Montauk Highway was for rent that year, asking $360,000 MD-LD. It is again this year, only now the price is $650,000. So let’s do some math, shall we? A lower priced rental is 40% more expensive than in 2013, while a higher-end is 80% more expensive.

Now let’s look at East Hampton. The medium priced rental, 4 Copeces Lane, was listed for $80,000 MD-LD. For summer 2021, 4 Copeces is available for a cool $150,000. The high-end property, 211 Lily Pond Lane, which was $425,000, is not available this year; and–nothing. There are no oceanfront East Hampton properties available for rent on either HamptonsRE or OutEast. Wow. The highest priced East Hampton Village rental we could find is $670,000 for a new-build, July-LD, on Davids Lane (pictured above). Nice but nowhere near the ocean. So for the math, we’re going to say a medium rental is 85% more expensive in 2021 than in 2013.

Now let’s check out Southampton. The lower-end property was 231 Halsey Street, at $50,000 for MD-LD. 231 Halsey is not available this summer, but you could spend $35,000 a month renting it for March or April. 65 Pelham Street is close to Halsey and comparable; it too has four bedrooms, five baths, and a gunite pool. You could nab 65 Pelham for July-LD for $125,000. The high-end property in Southampton, 396 Meadow Lane, was $800,000 for MD-LD. In 2021, it’s $850,000 for MD-LD. Finally, a bargain! A lower-end rental is 150% more expensive now than in 2013, while a higher-end one is just 6.25%.

To sum up: yep. Things cost a lot more now. More so on the lower and medium end than the high end, we’d say. After all, if you’re going to shell out a fortune renting, why not just buy? Something those East Hampton oceanfront owners seem to be taking to heart.

Word comes today that in an off-market deal, 11 Bridge Street, Sag Harbor, known as the Dodds & Eder building for its best known tenant, has sold for $10 million.

The building, which comprises about 1,000 square feet of retail/office/mixed use space was rehabbed in 2014 and is in very good condition. (Don’t worry, Dodds & Eder is staying.) The very attractive part of the property is that it includes a private 20 space parking lot, useful in the heart of the village.

What about the price? The West Water Street Shops nearby sold for just over $13 million, but that is a larger piece of property, a larger building, and a 30-space parking lot. (Of course you remember that Bay Street Theater purchased that land.) So $10 million sounds about right to us for value.

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Yes, of course, the hilarious asking prices make headlines, but there are plenty of properties available at a much more down-to-earth ask. Such as this one, located in Lazy Point, a quiet area of mostly water and sea birds. For $1.3 million, you can clam, windsurf, kiteboard, and SUP right from your front yard.

“But Hot Sheet,” I hear you say. “In the real world, $1.3 million is quite a lot of money.” Yes, but if you want to be in the Hamptons, you have to pay a premium. “But Hot Sheet,” you continue. “I see lots of sold properties in the area that cost much less. What gives?” That’s because in much of Lazy Point, the residents own only their buildings and have to pay ground rent to the town of East Hampton. This property includes the land.

Of course, the house is modest–but that’s much of the charm of the area. It’s just 900 square feet with two bedrooms and one bath; not a lot of room but it’s all nicely updated. There’s also 0.23 of an acre of land.

Interested? Contact Krae van Sickle and Lylla Carter at Saunders. And go enjoy a peaceful, quiet summer.

• 82 Shore Road [HRE]

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