Realty Check: The latest Hamptons real estate news

Pure Color Envy
Billionaire cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder has asked East Hampton Town for permission to rebuild his Hamptons oceanfront house that was destroyed by Superstorm Sandy. The new one-story structure would be elevated on pilings as required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The lipstick tycoon’s reps have applied for environmental variances as the new abode would be erected on the dunes that run between Wainscott Pond and the Atlantic Ocean.

Movie Magic
“Shorebluff,” a cinematically charmed house that appeared in such films as Margot at the Wedding and The Forgotten, has sold for over ask after a bidding war. The grand estate built circa 1897, is comprised of three structures on nine acres featuring 225 feet of Peconic Bay shoreline. The asking price was $5,700,000 and while we’re not privy to its sale price the folks at listing agency Douglas Elliman Real Estate assure us that it is the highest price ever fetched in Hampton Bays.

“big e” Sold
A huge 205-acre property known as the “Big E Farm” has sold in Riverhead for $15 million – down from a $17.5 million ask – and is the second-highest sale in the North Fork’s history. The highest sale was for $19.5 million in 2008. Both sales were represented by The Corcoran Group’s broker, Sheri Winter Clarry. More than half the property – 113 acres – is under vine and hosted the Martha Clara Winery. The new owner is one of Mexico’s most renowned wine producers, the Rivero-González family.

Ch-Ch-Changes
Longtime Douglas Elliman Real Estate agent Cynthia Beck has joined Compass in their Bridgehampton office. Cynthia began her career in the investment banking industry, working her way up to Vice President of Facilities and Real Estate for a NYC firm, where she managed the procurement, construction and operations of their offices regionally. In her career in real estate she has utilized her business experience along with her diversified background in design, construction and project management.

Having been an integral part of the Raphael Avigdor’s team operations and management for the past four years, Aleksandrina Penkova has now become a partner in the newly branded The AVIGDOR / PENKOVA Team. Born and raised in Bulgaria, Aleks has been a Hamptons resident for five years. “Her background in economics, combined with her easygoing personality have made her a natural in servicing customers and clients,” according to a release.

Sweet Master Suites
Many affluent baby boomers are increasingly taking refuge in elaborate master suites that serve as apartments within a much larger home, according to Bloomberg.com. “It’s a very European way of living, where they’re shutting off part of the house,” the article quotes Tim Davis, a broker at The Corcoran Group in Southampton. Davis also told the publication that his own home’s master suite enables him and his wife “to have this separate apartment that’s self-contained.” Davis references the master at 9 Olde Towne Lane in Southampton, a listing he shares with The Corcoran Group’s Gary DePersia. The $39.5 million new home contains a master “with a sitting room and two bathrooms, which can be accessed by elevator.”

Tribal Rumblings
With the United States Open headed back to the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club this month “the relationship between the [Shinnecock] tribe and the U.S.G.A. may be fraying,” according to the New York Times. The article harkens back to the second US Open in 1896 when that year’s event was played on land “once owned by the Shinnecock Indians and built by a Shinnecock work crew.” That year two Shinnecock teens actually played in the event. “For generations thereafter, the Shinnecock worked at the golf club as groundskeepers and caddies . . . and continued to partner in various ways with the United States Golf Association, which conducts the tournament.” But when details of the U.S.G.A.’s plans for the Shinnecock were disseminated to parts of the 1,500-member tribe in May, there was dissatisfaction with many elements. “A prominent sticking point appears to be whether the Shinnecock Nation will benefit financially from the highly lucrative tournament” as they have in years past. Stay tuned.

J. Crew Boss Sells
Current Chairman and former CEO of retailer J. Crew, Millard “Mickey” Drexler, has sold his Wainscott house for $15 million – a serious reduction from the $26 million he originally asked when it first listed in 2014. He purchased the property in 2008 for $17 million and put much moolah into it so he lost a bundle on the deal. A true beach house, the property at 120 Beach Lane sits on 2.3 acres overlooking the sea and Wainscott Pond, with a whopping 315 feet of ocean frontage. Dubbed a “serial property investor” by Women’s Wear Daily, the Bronx-born hotshot once owned Andy Warhol’s former Montauk estate, which he sold in 2015 for a record-breaking $50 million. The listing broker was Paul Brennan of Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

The Mooch flips
Talk about flipping. Disgraced White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, has put back on the market a Water Mill property he purchased less than six months ago. The short-lived Trumpster paid the full ask of about $7.5 million in January but the price rose to $8.2 million as he requested add-ons from a home theater to a pool house. “It will most likely hit the market for roughly $9 million,” according to The Real Deal. That’s a quick $700,000 to add to his millions.