As soon as you think the flames are dying down in the Hamptons, someone chucks a fresh log on the fire.
A single home at 90 Jule Pond in Southampton, last asking $145 million, is now in contract, The Post exclusively reported last week.
The sale of the 42-acre estate will be for far less than the home’s original $175 million ask, but it is still a record for a single-family home — even if it ultimately trades under $100 million, sources said.
(The current record was set by New York activist investor Barry Rosenstein, in 2014 when he paid an incredible $147 million for a compound of multiple properties on Further Lane in East Hampton.)
The seller of the outrageous estate once known as Fordune — which dates back to the late 1950s and was built by the grandson of Henry Ford — is Brenda Earl, a former partner at the investment firm Zweig-Dimenna. The buyer, we hear, is an “American real estate family” based in Florida.
“I think a lot of people have adopted to a remote-working lifestyle and they have the capability to do that moving forward,” said Zachary Vichinsky, of Bespoke, which co-listed 90 Jule Pond with Sotheby’s.
“They can spend more time at home with their families, and that necessitates larger homes and upgrading homes. Some people are leaving the state for obvious reasons [i.e., taxes!] but they still want a presence in New York for the summer, which prompts the purchase of a home in the Hamptons.”
In fact, more than $8.1 billion worth of Hamptons homes have sold since lockdown began — more than double the previous year’s sales, according to the brokerage Brown Harris Stevens.
Some of the biggest recent trades have included hedge funder Ken Griffin’s $84.4 million purchase of Calvin Klein’s somewhat nefarious-looking castle at 650 Meadow Lane in Southampton. And in East Hampton, 30 Spaeth Lane sold for $60 million, closing last month.
But there is plenty left to buy.
Bespoke also boasts the East End’s current priciest listing — Mylestone, on Meadow Lane in Southampton. The 8-acre oceanfront estate is currently asking $175 million. It made headlines when it asked $2.5 million as a summer rental back in 2015. The seller is Marcia Riklis, daughter of the Israeli businessman Meshulam Riklis.
German fashion mogul Jürgen Friedrich is listing his Linden estate at 160 Ox Pasture Road in Southampton, for $75 million. Meanwhile, the former home of 1stDibs maven Michael Bruno, designed by Grosvenor Atterbury, is now asking $35 million at 199 Coopers Neck Lane in Southampton.
“All of the buyers are telling me they want to be in the Hamptons because that is where their friends are,” luxury broker Dolly Lenz said. “The kids have friends, they have friends and they created another place to do business outside their primary residence, which makes the Hamptons very, very attractive.
Everybody I know says they want a place for Zoom calls, where they can have coffee catch-ups at the Golden Pear, and send their kids out to play in the backyard.
And it’s 100 percent safe. Southampton has one of the highest paid police commissioners in the country — and you can’t beat the beaches. They are some of the most beautiful in the country.”
But not all of the billions of dollars in deals have been by billionaires.
“While the high-end market has never been hotter, the sweet spot for buyers is between $2 to $5 million,” said Corcoran CEO Pam Liebman.
Andrew Saunders, of Saunders & Associates, added that of the more than 3,100 residential, commercial and land trades in 2020 in the Hamptons, only “60 or 70” were for more than $10 million. In fact, the smallest deal was for a two-bedroom, 1½-bathroom, cottage on 0.11 acres in Sag Harbor at 2 Cedar St., which sold for $225,000 in August 2020.
“Many people misinterpret the Hamptons,” Saunders said, while noting that “there is a select group of individuals who have made a lot of money despite the ugliness of the virus.”
“It’s perverse in a way, as so many people are getting crushed, but there is inflation in asset values, and massive amounts of money coming into the country from the government with the big stimulus,” he said. “It’s a perfect storm and the rising tide is raising all boats.”