Real Estate

After a difficult debate that ended in compromise, the East Hampton Town Board agreed at its work session Tuesday to bring an updated formula that links house size and lot size to a public hearing in early March. The board settled on a maximum house size of 7 percent of lot area plus 1,500 square feet. Right now, the formula is set at 10 percent of lot area plus 1,600 square feet.

Keen-eyed observers may have noticed an intriguing “available retail space” sign placed over the holidays at the Long Island Rail Road Station in East Hampton Village. The space, 613 square feet total, is divided between 488 square feet that will be shared with the Metropolitan Transit Authority, including a bathroom, and 125 feet of exclusive retail space.

The Hedges Inn, now owned by John Cumming, is in contract to be sold to Andrew and Sarah Wetenhall, marking an end to a year of drama that saw the 1873 inn, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, actively courted by Scott Sartiano and his celebrity hangout, Zero Bond.

Stephen Deckoff, the billionaire founder of the private equity firm Black Diamond Capital Management, and his son, Stephen E. Deckoff, are no longer simply longtime visitors to Montauk aboard their yacht. They are officially the new owners of Gosman’s Dock and several surrounding properties, acquiring the set for just over $34.35 million in October.

Michele L’Hommedieu Hofmann had no idea until retiring last fall and starting to research her family history how prominent a role her great-great-grandfather James H. L’Hommedieu had played in Long Island’s late-19th-century architecture. On a trip to New York that included a stop at an East Hampton house he designed for Robert Southgate Bowne, a founder of the Maidstone Club and first president of the Long Island Rail Road, she and her family got a crash course in L’Hommedieu’s work.

The developer Harry Macklowe listed his Georgica Pond house last week for $38 million. Despite the legal costs Mr. Macklowe has accrued since 2019, when East Hampton Village first hit him with a stop-work order citing illegal clearing and improvements, he stands to make a tidy profit if he gets close to that number, having bought the property in 2017 for $10.35 million.

Three of the buildings that comprise Adam Potter's 11 Bridge Street Limited Liability Company in Sag Harbor — 23 Bridge Street, 12 Rose Street, and 8 Rose Street — hit the real estate market this week, raising the question of whether his plan for a large, mixed-use building there is dead.

When the word “suffered” ends up in a year-end real estate home-sales report, you know it can’t be good. And while Judi Desiderio, the C.E.O. and president of Town and Country Real Estate, said “the worst is yet to come,” the rental market is showing strength, and the stock market is hitting new highs.

“It’s a record price per square foot for any commercial real estate transaction in the Hamptons, ever,” said Jeremey Tahari of Tahari Capital, whose father, Elie Tahari, sold the building at 1 Main Street in East Hampton for $22 million to Bernard Arnault, named by Forbes last week as the world’s richest person.

Lacking the kind of synergy between restaurants and retail that might draw more off-season shoppers, Amagansett's Main Street on a winter weekday can feel in need of a bit of revival. That will all change when the high season arrives, but what has people talking now is the news last month of the sale of the Main Street Tavern building and how a restaurant in that spot could boost morale on Main Street.

Praise the mozzarella sticks and pass the pool cue! The Sail Inn in Montauk’s dock area has been sold to the mother-son team of Colleen Croft and Luca Guaitolini, who also own the upscale Upper East Side restaurant Elio’s, but the new owners say they are not planning to go luxe on the longtime locals’ joint on West Lake Drive when it reopens in the spring.

It’s been nearly six weeks since a malware infestation crippled Suffolk County’s computer systems, and while the county has adopted numerous workarounds to address the ransomware attack since Sept. 8 — there’s a long way to go before it’s business as usual, especially when it comes to real estate transactions.

A development on Handy Lane that has riled neighbors is a familiar story in East Hampton Town and across the South Fork: along with teardowns and rebuilds, spec houses that, with seemingly few exceptions, take allowable lot coverage and floor area to their absolute limit.

It’s the kind of real estate transaction that often flies under the radar: A high-end property never hits the market publicly but captures people’s attention once its address appears in the county’s recorded deed transfers — usually with an eye-popping price and limited-liability corporations listed as buyer, seller, or both.

The East End real estate boom brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic is experiencing a shift thanks to historically low inventory, but the market is still feeding historically high prices, competitive conditions, a near-total lack of available rental properties, and faster turnaround of deals as a result.

For a luxury Montauk rental, it sounds too good to be true. Six bedrooms, 7,300 square feet, ocean view, heated saltwater pool with waterfall edge, and top-of-the-line kitchen appliances listed for $2,500 a night on Airbnb. The catch, says the homeowner: It's a scam offered by "hosts" who've used the legitimate real estate photos to dupe unsuspecting vacationers.

Residential real estate transfers made history on the South Fork again in 2021, with record-high sales totals, record-low inventory, and a lightning-fast pace at which deals are being made. It was a frenzied year, described by industry professionals as a seller's market in which cash is king, bidding wars are common, and inventory is low.

A group of investors has purchased 2 Main Street in Sag Harbor Village, home to the K Pasa restaurant and other businesses, and is seeking to have Southampton Town purchase the building with community preservation fund money.

Robert Zecher, a real estate developer and the new owner of the building that is home to Mary's Marvelous in East Hampton Village, has a vision to transform that section of the village into an extension of the commercial core with more storefronts and apartments. 

The owner of a Water Mill house that is on the market for nearly $5 million filed a breach of contract lawsuit against renters who have refused to leave the property after their $10,000-a-month lease ended on May 31.

East Hampton Point, the luxury resort and marina on five acres of Three Mile Harbor waterfront, has been purchased for just under $18 million by an investment group led by Heath Freeman, the president of the Alden Global Capital hedge fund and a Montauk resident.

The scramble to find a refuge during the pandemic has led to surging home sales and prices, bidding wars, and an ongoing boom in the East End real estate market, according to third-quarter reports from several real estate agencies.

That the former Morpurgo house, a.k.a. the Captain John Hulbert house, hadn't been sold yet amid the pandemic was serendipitous for its owners, Max and Michelle Breskin, who, with their three children, are its first legal occupants in many years. Once a wreck, now tip-top after a major restoration completed by Breskin Development, it is on the market for just under $6.5 million.

The Hamptons Realty Group, a fixture on Main Street in Amagansett since 1984, rolled up its signature red awning and vacated the space it has long occupied this week. The firm is still very much alive and prospering, said its owner Htun Han, but the pandemic has changed the way it is doing business.

The Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund reported $45.43 million in revenues through May of this year, the highest five-month total in the fund's 22-year history. The money comes from a 2-percent transfer tax on real estate sales and provides money for land preservation, water quality improvement, and the protection of maritime heritage.

At the onset of the pandemic in early spring, a mad dash of New York City residents seeking an East End refuge led to a surge in rentals, which depleted inventory of all but the most expensive properties. Given what landlords were asking per month, people began to think, "For that money I could carry this house for a year. . . . When we hit that tipping point, the flood gates opened."

Using Airbnb is out, enlisting a savvy broker is in. Short-term bookings are out, long-term stays are in. Standard leases are out, customized ones with Covid-19 riders are in.

The Springs General Store, the historical market and gathering place on Old Stone Highway, is for sale for $2.9 million.