Realty Check

Hot Sales And Listings With A Dollop Of Hamptons Gossip

Well, another year of Hamptons real estate is in the bag! While 2023 has been fairly quiet, mostly because of lack of inventory, this year still has produced some quite high trades, which we’ll detail below. These are all accurate at time of writing; of course, as most of us know, a lot of sales close before the new year, so watch this space. 

Mylestone Finds a Buyer 
The biggest deal of the year is the giant eight-acre estate on Meadow Lane belonging to Marcia Riklis. Yes, you remember correctly: her father was financier Meshulam Riklis, who among other things helped found Carnival Cruise Lines and part owned Las Vegas casinos. He was also the husband of 80s starlet Pia Zadora, who received a scandalous Golden Globe award. 

Mylestone, as the property is known, was originally put on the market in January 2021 asking $175 million. The last ask for the property at 700 Meadow Lane, brokered by Bespoke, was $135 million. Michael Koeneke of Compass brought the buyer, known only as Meerkat LLC at press time, who paid $112.5 million. And why not? The property includes both ocean- and bayfront, 500 feet of ocean frontage with a private boardwalk to the water. There’s also a private pathway to a deepwater dock on the bay side, perfect for parking a yacht. 

The house is 15,000 square feet, with 11 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms and four half-baths, as well as an attached caretaker’s cottage. We’d guess the house will be bulldozer bait fairly soon, though. Ultra-rich people usually want to design their own mansions, rather than inherit someone else’s hand-me-down.

East Hampton Strikes Back 
Likely the second priciest sale of 2023 is an oceanfront compound that sold for $91.5 million in an off-market deal in January. 32 Windmill Lane and 26 Windmill Lane in East Hampton sold in two transactions — $77,775,000 and $13,725,000. The parcels comprise a 5.4-acre property that with a 5,500-square-foot, five-bedroom, six-bath main house and a nearly 1.3-acre inland parcel with a four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath guest house. Before that, the property sold in April 2020 for $45 million; the buyer then put the estate back on the market in October 2020 for $72 million. Nice profit of $46.5 million there, but who’s counting?

Another oceanfront house, at 201 Lily Pond Lane, sold on November 1 for a whopping $61 million. Repped by Ed Petrie and James Petrie at Compass, the property, available for the first time in 75 years, includes 2.7 acres of land with 400 feet of ocean frontage on Georgica Beach. Views are, of course, to the ocean to the south and to Lily Pond to the north, with gorgeous sunsets. The house, originally built in 1925 in the Spanish colonial style, is 7,600 square feet, with 8 bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms, five fireplaces, and a double-height living room. There’s a 3.5 car garage, pool house, and oceanside pool.

Place of Peace 
Lasata, famed for being the young Jackie Kennedy’s family summer home on Further Lane in East Hampton, has a new owner. Supposedly named after a Native American word meaning “place of peace,” the iconic Lasata is now the property of superstar fashion designer Tom Ford. Ford paid $52 million for the non-waterfront property, which went on the market in May asking $55 million. The seller, David Zander, who purchased the estate in 2018 for $24 million, was repped by Charles Forsman and James Petrie of Compass and Eileen O’Neill of The Corcoran Group. Frank E. Newbold of Sotheby’s International Realty brought the buyer.

The 8,500-square-foot main house, with eight bedrooms, has been sensitively redecorated. There is also a two-bedroom guest cottage, a caretaker’s cottage, a pool house and a three-car garage. Now including 7.15 acres, the gardens of Lasata were redesigned by French landscape architect Louis Benech after the property was subdivided in 2017, with four acres sold separately.

Going Further  
In May, Peloton co-founder John Foley sold his Further Lane, Amagansett, oceanfront house for $4 million less than he paid for it in 2021. Not too surprising given that Peloton stock plummeted after Covid-related lockdowns eased, and Foley was rumored to be interested in offloading the property just two months after his purchase.

The property, set on about four acres with 400 linear feet of oceanfront, traded for $51 million in May. Foley paid $55 million for it in December 2021. The property sold off market, and it’s uncertain who the brokers or buyers were, always bad news for us nosey types.

Southampton Compound
In September came news of the transfer of an oceanfront house in Southampton’s McDonnell-Murray Compound. On 2.64 acres, with 191 feet of ocean frontage, the house was built in 1992 and traded for $41 million. Bespoke represented both the buyers and the sellers. 

The dwelling includes almost 8,000 square feet, with six bedrooms and seven-and-a-half bathrooms. Outside, there’s a gunite swimming pool, a clay tennis court and a private duckwalk to the beach. The property was previously owned by apparel magnate Irving L. Rousso, a founder and president of Russ Togs, who died in 2017.

Caribbean Bound  
Douglas Elliman | Knight Frank recently announced a new affiliate partner for luxury real estate in the Bahamas. While Douglas Elliman and Knight Frank have shared a formal global alliance for more than a decade, this new affiliate platform, beginning with The Isles Group, is the first-of-its-kind affiliation between one of the largest independent brokerages in the U.S. and its UK-headquartered international partner. It heralds Douglas Elliman’s arrival to the Caribbean property market and Knight Frank’s expansion. Headquartered in Nassau, The Isles Group is a full-service, luxury real estate company active in the key markets of the Bahamas where neither brokerage currently operates. 

Good Beaches Make Good Neighbors    
51 West End Road in East Hampton traded for $35 million in January. Lloyd and Barbara Macklowe, founders of the Macklowe Gallery, sold their home to their neighbor, Hard Rock Cafe’s founder Peter Morton. The Macklowes were represented by Kyle Rosko and Marcy Braun of the Eklund | Gomes Team at Douglas Elliman, while Morton’s agents were James Petrie and Ed Petrie of Compass.

The 1.51 acre property, with 170 feet of ocean frontage, is right on sought-after Georgica Beach. It boasts sunrises over the Atlantic and sunsets over Georgica Pond, along with a rare oceanside pool. Built in 1926 by Roger Bullard (architect of the Maidstone Club) and known as the Ellery S. James House, the 6,100 square foot house offers a three-car garage renovated by Ben Krupinski himself, the house includes a fun hidden guest wing staircase. The private beach boardwalk is placed perfectly between two of Juan Trippe’s original Georgica jetties for erosion control.

Just down the road, the oceanfront home at 15 West End Road has sold for $33 million. The two-acre parcel offers a 5,000-square-foot home, a 1,500-square-foot cottage, and a swimming pool, and boasts 165 feet of ocean frontage. Owned by the same family since 1945, the house was originally built by Ring Lardner, the sports columnist and friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald, in 1927. 

Listed with the Petrie Team at Compass, the house offers nine bedrooms and five bathrooms, all restored to historic perfection — the house is still neither winterized nor air conditioned, a true taste of vintage East Hampton.