Realty Check – Latest Hamptons Real Estate News

Gridiron Grab
New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning has snapped up an oceanfront house on Quogue’s Dune
Road. Like many, the gridiron great refrained from using his own name for the sale, instead listing a limited liability company—named after Mr. Chester, the family pooch. The Cavalier King Charles spaniel is somewhat of a celebrity in his own right. That is, if you credit a feature
devoted to him in People. Perched on 1.21 acres, the modern three-story home with 5-bedrooms and 4-baths should be spacious enough for the NFL star, his wife and three young daughters. And we’re thinking that if the family gets a visit by Eli’s brother Peyton, now retired
from the gridiron, the football great will appreciate the property’s private beach entrance. $8.5M

Peaceful Agreement
When Mariska Hargitay and her husband purchased the East Hampton Village home of Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke, it boasted a treehouse, swing set and basketball hoop that would be just dandy for August, the 10-year-old son of the “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star. Alas, her neighbors objected to the proximity of the structures to their property, and the
village ruled in their favor. Hargitay will have to move the structures back from the property line, which Kirke built for his daughters, including “Girls” star Jemima Kirke. This despite a letter from August stating: “I promise to play basketball really, really, really quietly.”

Done Deal
Talk about a steep price reduction. A 1903 pile built for coal baron William Atwater by Henry Bacon,
the architect who designed the Lincoln Memorial, is finally in contract after its last ask at $16.75M, less than half its original $39M million price in 2008. The 16,000-square-foot home listed with Enzo Morabito of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, at 66 Seafield Lane in Westhampton Beach South, is on 6.86 acres that includes a picturesque carriage house enwrapped with century-old grape vines. Not to mention its formal gardens, rolling lawns, greenhouse and pool.

Easy Street
Now that most of the South Fork real estate community has kicked to the curb Hamptons Real
Estate Online (HREO), its longtime listing portal, the seemingly irrelevant company has been picked up by Zillow — well, actually StreetEasy, one of the real estate database firms in Seattle-based Zillow’s stable. Terms of the deal were not available at press time, but Zillow is not exactly frugal, having spent $2.5 billion to purchase Trulia in 2015.
Hotelier Needed
The Ram’s Head Inn, which has served guests since 1929, is on the market for the first time in almost 40 years, listed with Peter McCraken of The Corcoran Group, asking just shy of $12M. Whoever buys the 4.3-acre parcel with 800 feet of beach frontage can maintain it as an inn, convert it into a private home or subdivide the property. We think that the storied lodgings with their 22 guest rooms, 15 baths, 180-seat dining room, tennis court, dock and moorings should be transformed into an upscale resort, a countrified version of, say, The Breakers or some other old-world palace. Starwood, are you listening?

Fertile Office
In a span of two weeks over the holidays, three agents in Douglas Elliman’s East Hampton office gave birth (or rather, their wives did). James Keogh sired Peter Vincent Keogh (12/28/16); Telly Karoussos is dad to Mimi Jayne Karoussos (1/1/17), while Justin Agnello calls Graham Charles Agnello (1/11/17) son. BTW, Peter Vincent and Graham Charles are first
cousins as Justin Agnello is married to James Keogh’s sister. Congrats to all, and we’re hoping the old adage is true that good luck comes in threes.
Musical Lairs
After spending a whopping – even by Hamptons standards — $36.5 million for Strongheart Manor,
Richard Gere’s pastoral North Haven estate earlier this year, Today Show host Matt Lauer put two
properties in his Hamptons real estate portfolio on the market. Though rumors of the sale of his North Sea cottage were rampant last summer, the deal fell through. Six months after the property was listed the relatively modest bay front cottage has sold for $3.5 million, significantly less than the $3.950 million ask, but considerably more than the $2.1 million he paid in 2009. Also last summer Lauer put his 25-acre main Hamptons residence, a stunning 8,000-square-foot
home designed by architect Daniel Roulades, on the market. The splendid Noyac home, with drop-dead interiors by Muriel Brandolini, is still languishing on the market. With a recent price chop (from $16.995 million to $17.995 million) and all the ink that spills whenever the NBC veteran makes a Monopoly move, we predict that it will go soon.

Not So Marvelous
It’s a sad day for Amagansett folk who rely on the arepas or chicken tarragon sandwiches at the hamlet’s gourmet coffee and takeout shop, Mary’s Marvelous. The Main Street mainstay will be shuttering. We hear that the price to buy out the ten-year lease including equipment is $625,000. That’s a lot of cupcakes! Not to fret, the East Hampton Village location will still
be doling out those yummy pecan squares. Douglas Elliman agent Robert Kohr has the listing.

Welcome Back
Veteran agent Michael Daly has returned to Douglas Elliman, where he started his real estate career in 1998. He will be rejoining the Sag Harbor office. The North Haven resident is
deeply committed to the community and has worked with the Peconic Land
Trust Outreach Committee, North Haven Village Zoning Board of Appeals,
Southampton Town Anti-Bias Task Force, Unitarian Universalist of the South Fork
Membership Committee and Sag Harbor American Music Festival. Also joining
Douglas Elliman, Vincent Frezzo, who has had a prominent career in luxury consumer products that included brand management for AT&T, JP Morgan Chase, Colgate, Palmolive, L’Oreal Paris, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Clairol, Coty Prestige and Interview magazine, is coming onboard as a member of the Brendan Skislock Team