Realty Check

Hot sales and listings with a dollop of Hamptons gossip 

Welcome to the holidays! In our opinion, the Hamptons is the best place to celebrate winter holidays. There is still so much natural beauty around, so much wildlife, and so much delicious, local food to enjoy, if you need us, we’ll be sipping hot Milk Pail cider in front of our fieldstone fireplace. But first, the news.

A New Record in Southampton 

Linden is one of those grand old Southampton dowager duchesses that have had issues of late. To wit, it’s been for sale for most of a decade, and yet this ageing belle never found a suitor. Until this year! Linden finally traded for a whopping $70 million, making a new record for non-waterfront in Southampton. As so often, the magic men involved were Harald Grant of Sotheby’s International Realty and Tim Davis of The Corcoran Group, representing the sellers; Davis also brought the buyer.

The house, designed by Grosvenor Atterbury and built in 1899, is a whopping 18,000 square feet. It’s called Linden after the trees planted there by Frederick Law Olmstead. Sellers were serial Hamptons homebuyers Juergen Friedrich, a former executive of Esprit, and wife, Anke Beck-Friedrich. No word yet on the buyer.

The Friedrichs purchased Linden for about $8.5 million in 2002. In 2008, they listed it for $60 million; 2013, it was asking $45 million. It was relisted two years ago for $75 million.

Davis says, “This sale is another career highlight for me and one that sets another record for a non-waterfront interior house sale. I set the record in 1994 when I sold ‘Westerly’ to Howard Gittis for $8M and several times since then during my 43 year career in various locations throughout the East End. The Friedrich’s did a marvelous job restoring, renovating and decorating this mansion and made it feel like a ‘home’. When I introduced the buyer to the property, she fell in love. Connecting buyers and sellers with happy endings is one of the biggest rewards for me.’

Blueberry Hill — in Southold

Don’t you just love blueberries? For those who reeeeeally love blueberries, here is not only a house for sale but also a business! Yep, it’s a 32-acre blueberry farm in Southold, close to beaches and to the many farms, wineries and great restaurants in the area.

Known as Bhavana Berries, the farm is available for $4 million via Nicholas Planamento at Town & Country Real Estate. The property includes two parcels of land: 1.83 acres with a 19th century farmhouse, plus 29 acres of preserved land. The land abuts farms to the west that are also preserved and is just moments to a very popular local beach. 

The acreage includes 40,000 seaside blueberry bushes, grown organically. In July and August, the farm is open to the public for U-Pick blueberries. Organic garlic is also grown on the land, which is often sold on the farmstand out front. In addition to U-Pick, Bhavana supplies berries to local restaurants and as part of local CSAs. The berries themselves have an excellent reputation for flavor, sweetness and texture, so anyone looking for a change of pace, start figuring out your favorite muffin recipe now.

Breathtaking East Hampton Gardens

Tucked away in leafy East Hampton is an enchanting home, designed and built by Kevin Keyser of Hamptons Silverleaf Landscaping. On half an acre of land are a new-build main house, an artist’s cottage, a yoga studio, and a two-car garage with storage. Lovely flower gardens, courtyards, vine-covered pergolas and winding paths lead to the saltwater gunite pool, making for a private, magical oasis. Together, the living spaces add up to 3,643 square feet, with four bedrooms, three bathrooms and one-half bath. The property is listed with Julie Pinkwater and Will Metzger at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, asking $3.8 million.

Keyser says, “This complex property had a variety of opportunities for private spaces, reflective inlets, pathways, meditative corners, and dining and entertainment areas. I created a three-tiered, layered installment with the perennial garden off the pool, conceiving its layers one at a time, so they would appear to spring forth from each other like they had naturally evolved over time.”

Making sure the gardens looked their best no matter the time of day or the season was also important. “I also sculpted surprising nooks and secret spaces in and around the property. Lights were added to pathways to instill a magical feeling,” Keyser says. “A truss was built and extended with ivies over a long, wooden, outdoor dining table, that could shield the sun in the afternoon, and remain just as beautiful when lit at night. The patio around the pool was laid with rustic brick and surrounded by gardens planted to evolve and change throughout the seasons.”

So Much Gilt! So Much Leopard! 

Like influential set decorator and maximalist interior designer Tony Duquette and centenarian fashion icon Iris Apfel, the design ethos of both Donald Trump and his recently deceased first wife Ivana Trump can be easily summed up: more is more.

More gold! Anything that doesn’t run away first is covered in gilding. More animal print! Cover that chaise, that chair, and that settee in leopard, immediately! Crystal chandeliers? Yes, and lots of them, at least one in every room, including the bathrooms, please. Ceilings should be tented in silk, in classic Mario Buatta fashion, of course, and all the windows are to be dressed in florid swags and tails. Add a few gilded cherubs here and there, some red and gold damask wallpaper, and fin!

The first ex-Mrs. Trump died earlier this year, in July, at 73, when she fell down the stairs of her flamboyantly appointed townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. And now her heirs, her children, have put the townhouse up for sale at $26.5 million. Mrs. Trump paid $2.5 million for the five-story residence in 1992, after her divorce from Donald was finalized. The 20-foot-wide residence currently sports five bedrooms, but there’s plenty of space to rejigger and add more bedrooms should a buyer desire, according to the listing agents, Adam Modlin of Modlin Group and Roger Erickson of Douglas Elliman.

Holiday House NYC 

Holiday House NYC hosted the opening of their Fall 2022 Designer Showhouse event on Wednesday, November 9th at The Kent, a 30-story luxury residential tower on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, to help raise critical funds for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). Holiday House founder and breast cancer survivor, Iris Dankner, was joined at her exciting and festive live showcase by co-chairs Amy Lau and Jean Shafiroff. The evening was presented by Extell Development and CL Investment Group and featured the talents of numerous designers, each of whom presented chic and cutting-edge designs in their own space spanning from children’s rooms, terraces, kitchens, and everything in between. “Holiday House is a time for talented designers of all styles to come together to showcase their work, while contributing to a great cause that holds deeply in my heart,” said Danker. 

Founded by interior designer and breast cancer survivor Iris Dankner in 2008, Holiday House is an interior design showhouse in which top interior designers and lifestyle brands can showcase their talent. All proceeds from Holiday House events benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. You can learn more about Holiday House by visiting their website at holidayhousenyc.com.