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Realty Check – Latest Hamptons Real Estate News

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Strange Stop
Grey Gardens, once inhabited by Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ kooky aunt and cousin, has been rented by American Express. The nine bedroom, 1897-built mansion, restored by the Washington Post’s Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn 30 years ago, is a fabulous location for events. And acclaimed restaurant Eleven Madison Park will host such fetes. (The elite eatery has a popup nearby in East Hampton where reservations are exclusive to American Express cardholders.) Trouble is East Hampton Town has already put the kibosh on one event, a Jennifer Fisher jewelry sale. Such a commercial undertaking is verboten in residential areas. While no rental fee was divulged, it was listed at $275,000 for the summer. Still for sale, the ask is $17.99M, down from $19.99M earlier this year. Represented by Corcoran’s Michael Schultz and Susan Ryan.

Hollywood Legend
The home of renowned literary agent Rosalind Paige Cole, who died of cancer in 2014, has been put back on the market at $10.25M, up from its $9.9M ask as recently as March. The tiny two bedroom, two bathroom oceanfront cottage at 77 Dune Road in Bridgehampton measures in at only 1,200 square-feet. Cole represented such larger-than-life talents as Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Charlie Chaplin and Andy Warhol. Her primary residence — the Waldorf Astoria, where she resided for 53 years — was the subject of two of her books: The Waldorf Astoria Cookbook and The Dog That Lived at the Waldorf (based on her spaniel, Jingabo). She owed a debt $818,000 in food and rent money at the time of her death, according to the New York Post. Presumably the hotel will be able to claim it as the former legend left no heirs. Repped by Douglas Elliman’s Carol Nobbs.

Top Brokers
The Real Deal has released its list of June’s Hamptons top brokers by volume of listings. Zachary and Cody Vichinsky, the duo behind Bespoke, claimed the number one spot with an impressive $969.335M (just shy of a billion!). Susan Breitenbach and Tim Davis, both of Corcoran, came in at second and third places with slightly more than half of the Vichinsky siblings’ haul: $571.477M and $526.484M respectively. “It doesn’t hurt that the two brothers have their sights trained exclusively on the priciest properties, with 36 listings accounting for a total of just over $969 million,” crowed the publication. Bespoke only reps properties valued at $10 M and up. They have even snagged the coveted Villa Maria listing in Water Mill, which has been repped by the best of the top agents.

Condomania
The condominium explosion has just been reignited. Southampton Pointe, a 50-unit complex off Tuckahoe Lane just south of County Road 39, has reached completion. When the three bedroom condos were first on the drawing board back in 2009 they were expected to sell for between $300,000 and $400,000. In today’s market the 1,875 and 2,045 square-foot properties are being offered at between $1.165M and $1.25M. Amenities, provided by Melville developers Fairfield Properties, include top-of-the-line appliances, custom closets, Gunite pool, pool cabana and clubhouse with a fitness room. Represented by Corcoran’s Mary Slattery.

Springs Has Sprung
Much maligned Springs is experiencing a long deserved comeuppance in the real estate market. Consider the recent sale of a bare bones, stripped down cottage built in 1975. It listed this spring at $425,000 and went into contract within two weeks for $10,000 above the ask. The undistinguished 1,600 square-foot home presides over a wooded half-acre, creatively dubbed as “mature landscaping.” Springs may never be considered as tony a location as properties located south of the highway, but long-term fans, like Jackson Pollack and Lee Krasner preferred the more rustic, natural beauty the area offers. One of the last bastions of properties below a million bucks east of the Shinnecock Canal, Springs’s real estate market is on fire. Listing by Douglas Elliman.

From $15K to $2.2M
In 1960, a young architect named Richard Bender began to build a semi-utopian community on a 20-acre property in Amagansett according to realtor.com. Called Amenity, the project featured several Midcentury Modern summer cottages for his family’s friends, each costing less than $15,000 to build, furnish, and landscape. Bender’s own home, which was renovated by photographer Anita Calerro who bought it in 1994, has been listed for $2.2M. Only 850 square feet, the striking glass-walled structure appears much bigger. Listed by Bayard Fenwick and Rylan Jacka of Sotheby’s.

Another Questionable Renovation
There’s another nail in the coffin of the East End’s historic homes. Mocomanto, an 1880s-built summer cottage often referred to as “the Jewel of Southampton Village,” will be getting a major renovation to about 40 percent of the home. A slew of proposed additions — 10 rooms, six bathrooms and an L-shaped connecting wing encompassing a four-car garage and living space — will make the relatively modest summer cottage on Lake Agawam virtually unrecognizable. According to architect Anne Surchin in 27east, the structure “has remained relatively intact over 135 years.” Built by patent lawyer Frederic Henry Betts, it remained in the Betts family till 1969. The National Register Historic District home is highly visible from Gin Lane. “What’s really at stake here is maintaining the visual historic equity of the community and that’s priceless,” writes Surchin.