Press
Late-Season Sales Hit the Hamptons
11/20/2014 – New York Post
Featuring Tim Davis’ sales at 1116 Meadow Lane and 576 Meadow Lane, Southampton, The Hamptons
The Beach House: Water Mill, NY
11/1/2014 – Private Air Luxury Homes
Featuring Tim Davis’ listings at 1320 Flying Point Road & 292 Roses Grove Road, Water Mill, The Hamptons
EDM big sells Hamptons house for $39 million
10/15/2014 – The New York Post
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing at 1116 Meadow Lane, Southampton, New York
Music Mogul Sells on Meadow Lane in Record Time
10/15/2014 – Curbed
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing at 1116 Meadow Lane, Southampton, New York
Atherton, California, is America’s Most Expensive Zip Code AGAIN – But New York Neighborhoods Dominate Top Ten
10/8/2014 – Daily Mail
Featuring Daren Herzberg, Julie Pham and Brian Babst’s listing at 30 Crosby Street, Soho, Manhattan; and Tim Davis’ Sagaponack Oceanfront in The Hamptons
Coastal Living Between Miami and New York
10/8/2014 – Centurion Magazine
Featuring Tim Davis and Peter Huffine’s listing at 51 Halsey Lane in Water Mill, The Hamptons, and Jim McCann’s listing at 800 South Ocean Blvd, Manalapan, South Florida
A Third Of Sillerman’s Southampton Property Asks $39 Million
9/22/2014 – Southampton Press
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing at 1116 Meadow Lane, Southampton, The Hamptons
Throwing Raves Can Net You 14 Acres on Meadow Lane
9/15/2014 – Curbed
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing at 1116 Meadow Lane, the Hamptons
Entertainment Mogul Robert F.X. Sillerman Lists Six Homes for a Total $107 Million
9/12/2014 – The Wall Street Journal
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing at 1116 Meadow Lane, and Leighton Candler and Caroline Holl’s listing at 157 East 70th Street
Dance music mogul lists six homes for $107M
9/12/2014 – The Real Deal
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing at 1116 Meadow Lane, and Leighton Candler and Caroline Holl’s listing at 157 East 70th Street
Looking to ‘Simplify,’ Mogul Lists $107M Worth of Fancy Homes
9/12/2014 – Curbed
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing at 1116 Meadow Lane, and Leighton Candler and Caroline Holl’s listing at 157 East 70th Street
Gallery: Hampton Classic Horse Show
9/10/2014 – Brokers Weekly
On a recent Sunday in Bridgehampton, the annual Hampton Classic Horse Show held its dramatic final day, “Grand Prix Sunday.” Equestrians, Celebrities, Real Estate Professionals and their fans and families gathered to see and to be seen.
What’s Hot: A Handsome Hamptons Estate
9/4/2014 – The Robb Report
Featuring Tim Davis’ Villa Maria listing at 51 Halsey Lane, Water Mill, The Hamptons
Broker Showcase – Tim Davis: The Corcoran Group
9/1/2014 – Hamptons Real Estate Showcase
HRES recently had the opportunity to sit down with Tim Davis, of the Corcoran Group, who sold Southampton’s historic Wooldon Manor oceanfront estate, not once, but twice in just six months. It first sold in one transaction in December of 2013 for $75 million. In less than 3 months it was back on the market, selling again in July 2014 in several transactions, for a total of $81,250,000. Tim was not only the co-exclusive listing agent, but he was also the selling agent first, for the entire transaction in 2013 (the house and four parcels) and two of the 2014 transactions (including the house and one parcel). An amazing year for this veteran Hamptons agent!
HRES: You have so many incredible listings on the market right now, call you tell us a little more about one or two of them?
TD: Yes, I am very fortunate in that regard. Rather than pinpoint one, I would state that in particular there are a number of important and impressive waterfront and oceanfront properties which I am currently offering in the market. Each one offers a unique feeling and opportunity depending on the way in which one wants to live and own their home in the Hamptons. From a crisp oceanfront contemporary in Sagaponack to a rambling Mecox Bayfront mansion. There are some wonderful selections in the market right now that will suit a wide variety of needs.
HRES: What is it like working together with your son, Jonathan?
TD: Jonathan assists on a number of my listings, while helping to develop other aspects of the business. We are building a partnership and have made a long-term commitment to providing the best service and marketing programs to our clients. Jon has brought social media and other exciting opportunities to enhance the Tim Davis brand and develop new opportunities. Most recently while in L.A. he introduced himself to one of the stars of Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles, which evolved into our shooting an episode of the show in the Hamptons featuring several of my listings.
HRES: Hamptons real estate is booming again … why do you thil1k that is?
TD: Hamptons real estate has been a constant. Even in recession times we always had buyers, just at different prices. First, we are a safe haven for investment. Then and perhaps most importantly this locale offers a unique and exceptional quality of life within 2 hours from Manhattan. The Hamptons have a well-deserved worldwide reputation for being a jewel in the real estate market and a lifestyle destination for homeowners.
HRES: Who has had the greatest influence on your life, and why?
TD: My wife and three children have been my greatest influence. Their love and support on a daily basis keeps me grounded and they remind me of the things that are most important in life. They inspire me to be the best version of myself. You know the saying” Behind every successful man … “for me, that means my entire family. They are my motivating engine.
HRES: What is the most important lesson you have learned as a real estate agent in the Hamptons?
TD: Each customer, contact and transaction is a future building block for new relationships and new business for tomorrow or ten years down the road. Treat them honestly, fairly and guide them with the experience and the understanding of the market gained over 33 years in the business to serve their best interests. Do right by them and the future will take care of you.
Tim Davis
Licensed Associate RE Broker
Licensed as Timothy G Davis
Office: (631) 702-9211
Email: [email protected]
MarketWatch: Busy Fall Season Predicted
9/1/2014 – Hamptons Real Estate Showcase
As the summer winds down, a slow down is nowhere in sight for the real estate market in the Hamptons. With interest rates low, prices increasing, and even some bidding wars~ the fall season is predicted to be very busy in the Hamptons!
Tim Davis of The Corcoran Group observes, “We have been unusually busy with sales in June, July, and August.” He remarks, “In general the market is active across the board. There are some excellent re-sale buying opportunities above $10M and below $20M for inland non-waterfront properties.” He notes, “The majority of our buyers come from the Tri-State Area, however this year there is interest from the West Coast, Europe and even the Middle East.”Tim reflects, “New inventory often comes on the market during August setting the tone for our fall selling season. September is generally the quieter month. October is traditionally the kick-off to the fall selling season.”
Ginger Thoerner of The Corcoran Group observes, “The market has been robust.” She exclaims “I haven’t seen such a busy July and August since I started in the business ten years ago.” She remarks, “The low end seems to be highly busy right now, but unique properties – either good design, waterfront location, or shrewdly priced – are moving quickly across all price points, with a lull in the $8M-$15M range inland.” She reflects, “For these unique or properly positioned properties, the prices have been exceeding expectation. There have been several full priced sales and bidding war situations which yielded higher than dreamed of prices.” Ginger predicts, “If things continue at this pace, the fall is sure to be busy.”
Fall is a great time of year to be in the Hamptons. From the fantastic shopping and dining, to the Hamptons International Film Festival, to the gorgeous Indian summer weather, autumn is a wonderful season to discover your dream home in the Hamptons.
The Top 10: Brokers Breaking Records in the Hamptons
9/1/2014 – AVENUE
Featuring East End agents Tim Davis, Susan Breitenbach & Gary DePersia: http://issuu.com/avenueinsider/docs/avenue-sept_2014/142?e=2748745/9171964 (Page 140)
In July, Avenue’s Unreal Estate column highlighted the top ten deals of the last year and the highest earning broker in the Hamptons. Space constraints prevented us from listing the top ten East End brokers of last year, a stellar group that includes Corcoran’s Susan Breitenbach, who won the Hall of Fame award at the first annual Privet Hedge dinner, Paul Brennan of Douglas Elliman, who took home the Broker’s Broker’s honor and Corcoran’s Tim Davis, who won the Big Deal Broker award. Herewith, the full list of last year’s top-selling brokers in the Hamptons. Congratulations to each of them, and may the next year bring even bigger numbers to them all (and to their clients) -Michael Gross
(Source: The Real Trends: The Thousand, 2014,”Top 250 Individual Real Estate Professionals by Sales Volume”)
1. Tim Davis
Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
Power broker and lifelong Hamptons resident Tim Davis boasts an accomplished 33-year real estate career listing and selling some of the finest properties on the East End. Known as the luxury market leader, he is currently ranked by the Wall Street Journal as the #4 broker Nationwide making him the #1 agent in the Hamptons and New York. Tim has sold over $2 billion in real estate, ranging from luxury estate homes and oceanfront properties to Village cottages and bayfront retreats. His personal sales for 2013 alone exceeded $400 million, including the highest price residential home sale on the East End-Wooldon Manor, an oceanfront estate in Southampton, which closed for $75 million. The Corcoran Group 631.283.7300 [email protected]. Total Sales Revenue: $422,218,500
3. Susan Breitenbach
Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
Susan Breitenbach’s accolades, rankings and awards easily establish her as one of the very best in her field. She has an inherent talent for real estate that has led to her handling over $2 billion in transactions and over $900 million in listings. This volume of experience ensures that without question, Susan has an unparalleled understanding of the luxury real estate market. The Corcoran Group 631.875.6000 [email protected]. Total Sales Revenue: $227,159,000
4. Gary DePersia
Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
On the East End since 1995, having started with the legendary Allan Schneider Associates, now The Corcoran Group, Gary DePersia has participated in more than $1.5 billion of real estate transactions.,With hundreds of his exclusive listings sold and closed, owing to his talent matching hundreds of his own buyers and renters with the right properties, Gary’s almost 20 years in the Hamptons luxury real estate market has generated benchmark sales. The Corcoran Group 631.899.0215 [email protected]. Total Sales Revenue: $190,930,500
Hamptons Mansion From Something’s Gotta Give Sells for a Whopping $41 MILLION – Jack Nicholson Not Included
8/28/2014 – Daily Mail
Featuring Tim Davis’ sale at 576 Meadow Lane, Southampton, The Hamptons
‘Something’s Gotta Give’ House on Meadow Lane Sells for $41M
8/27/2014 – Curbed
Featuring Tim Davis’ sale at 576 Meadow Lane, Southampton, The Hamptons
Hamptons & North Fork Markets: Where They’ve Been, Where They’re Going
8/27/2014 – Dan’s Papers
Featuring East End agents Tim Davis and Susan Breitenbach and their Hampton sales
Hamptons beach house from ‘Something’s Gotta Give’ sells for $41M to hotel magnate Jimmy Tisch
8/26/2014 – New York Daily News
Featuring Tim Davis’ sale at 576 Meadow Lane, Southampton, The Hamptons
Jimmy Tisch buys 11-bedroom Hamptons mansion for $41M
8/26/2014 – The Real Deal
Featuring Tim Davis’ sale at 576 Meadow Lane, Southampton, The Hamptons
Southampton Property To Go on the Market for $50 Million
8/22/2014 – The Wall Street Journal
Featuring Tim Davis’ beachfront Gin Lane listing, Southampton
Gin Lane property on the market for first time in 50 years
8/22/2014 – The Real Deal
Featuring Tim Davis’ beachfront Gin Lane listing, Southampton
Oceanfront Properties Still Dominate the Market
8/22/2014 – Hamptons Magazine
Featuring Tim Davis’ Oceanfront listings and sales, The Hamptons
The Amazing Hamptons Estate Of A Late Telecom Entrepreneur Is On The Market For $35 Million
8/22/2014 – BusinessInsider.com
Featuring Tim Davis’ beachfront Gin Lane listing, Southampton
New Construction in Amagansett Asks $9.75M
8/22/2014 – Curbed
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing at 252 Bluff Road, Amagansett, The Hamptons
Land Trust Seeking Farmers To Buy Water Mill Land
8/13/2014 – 27 East
Featuring Tim Davis’ sale of the Peconic Land Trust, Water Mill, The Hamptons
Here’s The Cost Of Maintaining The Priciest Homes In NYC
8/11/2014 – BusinessInsider.com
Featuring Susan Breitenbach and her Two Trees Farm listing at 231, 491 and 849 Hayground Road, Bridgehampton as well as Tim Davis’ listing at 16 Gin Lane, Southampton, The Hamptons
Editorial: Land deal a model to preserve LI farms
8/11/2014 – Newsday
Featuring Tim Davis’ sale of the Peconic Land Trust, Water Mill, The Hamptons:
Southampton Town Helps Keep Farmers Farming
8/6/2014 – The Sag Harbor Express
Featuring Tim Davis’ sale of the Peconic Land Trust, Water Mill, The Hamptons
Kitchens Made for Entertaining in Million-Dollar Hamptons Homes
8/6/2014 – Hamptons Magazine
Featuring Tim Davis’ Oceanfront listing in Sagaponack, his Back Bay listing in Water Mill, and his listing with Peter Huffine at 51 Halsey Lane; Cee Scott Brown and Jack Pearson’s penthouse listing at Watchcase, Sag Harbor; and Shaunagh M. Byrne’s listing at 291 Great Plains Road, Southampton, The Hamptons
Amid Preservation Efforts, Farmland in the Hamptons Goes for Other Uses
8/5/2014 – The New York Times
John v.H. Halsey, president of the Peconic Land Trust, and Anna Throne-Holst, the Southampton town supervisor, in Water Mill. The town paid $12.5 million for developmental rights.
Even in the Hamptons, $12.5 million is a lot to pay for a piece of property, especially when the only things that will be allowed to sprout on it are corn and potatoes. No new houses. And for the first time, horse farms and vineyards will not qualify, either.
At $378,000 an acre, the farmland — two parcels along Noyac Path in Water Mill — is some of the most expensive in the country, but for the Town of Southampton, the price was worth it. And Southampton is not even buying the land, but merely the development rights to it.
“Everyone who lives or visits here appreciates that we have not only beautiful beaches and bays, the classic resort experience, but we also have this rolling landscape and agricultural atmosphere, and that’s a very unique combination we’re fighting to preserve,” said Anna Throne-Holst, the town supervisor.
Suffolk County pioneered the practice of buying development rights in the 1970s to protect its agricultural heritage and shield farmers from soaring estate taxes as developers competed for their properties, driving up land values. But just because homes could not be built on protected parcels did not mean the land would remain fertile for farming.
Over the past decade or so, it has become increasingly common for developers or neighbors to buy protected land and, preferring the patter of horses to the clatter of tractors, turn it into private equestrian complexes or simply giant lawns surrounded by hedges. The hedges and horses mean not only less local produce but also fewer of the bucolic potato farm vistas associated with the South Fork, and an increased feeling of an expensive enclave.
“Even the protected parcels started selling for six figures, which might be cheap for some folks but is prohibitively expensive for farmers,” said John v.H. Halsey, president of the Peconic Land Trust, which has arranged hundreds of these deals. “It is especially frustrating for the public, who already spent money on land they thought they were protecting for farming to find out it’s turned into a gated compound.”
Just up the Scuttle Hole Road from the Noyac parcels is one of the most famous examples: a 26-acre horse farm Madonna bought for $6.5 million and an adjacent 24-acre agricultural field she bought for $2.2 million. She built high fences around both properties in 2013 and used the field as a staging ground for construction, both of which were forbidden by the town’s prior purchase of the development rights there.
The terms of the Noyac sale are an attempt to turn this tide.
In addition to buying the development rights on the 33 acres, the town has also bought the equestrian rights, vineyard rights and restrictions on leaving land fallow for more than two years — a measure to combat those baronial lawns. There will also be limits on how much the land can be sold for, not unlike income-restricted co-op apartments in New York City.
On Tuesday, the Peconic Land Trust will begin accepting applications from farmers to buy the land for roughly $26,000, or a 93 percent discount from what the town paid.
“No one imagined this land would ever be used for anything but farming, but now it’s nice to see the town taking a stand and doing something about it,” said John L. Halsey, the 11th-generation operator of the White Cap Farm on Mecox Bay and the head of Southampton’s Agricultural Advisory Committee (and a distant cousin of the land trust’s president).
The town can afford to buy these additional development rights in part because of the resurgent real estate market. In 1998, the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund was created to buy farmland, historic landmarks or wetlands, financed by a 2 percent transfer tax on property sales in eastern Suffolk County. This year, Ms. Throne-Holst said, she expected the fund for Southampton alone to top $50 million; even during the down years it was earning about $20 million annually.
Of the 34,000 acres of farmland in Suffolk County, only 12,000 have been protected so far, although on the South Fork, only about 1,000 acres remain unprotected, the land trust estimates. The amount of protected land that is fallow is unknown.
The real estate community is sanguine about the prospect of renewed competition from the town.
“There are some buyers who might be dissuaded from a property because it abuts a working farm or they really want some massive acreage, but I think for most people coming to the Hamptons, that is what draws them here in the first place,” said Tim Davis, the Corcoran agent who brokered the sale of the Noyac Path parcels.
The property was originally listed for $10.8 million, and the town had to beat out half a dozen developers for it in a sealed bid.
“It could have fit 14, 15 homes,” Mr. Davis said. “This way, my other properties become more valuable for it. And we get to keep the farms.”
Copyright © 2014 The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission. Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times.
Peconic Land Trust and town of Southampton protect 33 acres of farmland in Water Mill, NY
8/5/2014 – Peconic Land Trust
Featuring Tim Davis’ sale to the Peconic Land Trust in Water Mill
Southampton imposes new rules to preserve farmland
8/5/2014 – Newsday
Featuring Tim Davis’ sale of the Peconic Land Trust, Water Mill, The Hamptons:
Milestone Collaborative Purchase Ensures Future Local Farming
8/5/2014 – Patch.com
Featuring Tim Davis’ sale of the Peconic Land Trust, Water Mill, The Hamptons:
Vanderbilt Heiress’ Revamped Hamptons Home Wants $28M
8/4/2014 – Curbed
Featuring Tim Davis’ Ox Pasture Road listing in Southampton, The Hamptons
Vanderbilt heiress’ Hamptons estate asking $28M
8/4/2014 – The Real Deal
Featuring Tim Davis’ Ox Pasture Road listing, Southampton, The Hamptons:
America’s Most Expensive Homes For Sale Right Now
8/4/2014 – Forbes
Featuring Gabriella Dufwa & Soli Mehta’s townhouse listing at 12 East 69th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan; and Tim Davis’ Villa Maria listing in Water Mill, The Hamptons
Hamptons home owned by a Vanderbilt asks $28M
8/3/2014 – The Real Deal
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing on Ox Pasture Road, Southampton
Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan’s Hamptons Home Lists for $28 Million
8/1/2014 – The Wall Street Journal
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing on Ox Pasture Road, Southampton, The Hamptons
Southampton’s Wooldon Manor Sells Again…This Time for More Than $80 Million
7/25/2014 – Dan’s Papers
Featuring Tim Davis’ Wooldon Manor sale
Experts Talk Opulent Vs. Minimalist Design
7/25/2014 – Hamptons Magazine
Featuring East End agent Tim Davis
Hamptons Home Sales Rise as Buyers Find More Inventory
7/24/2014 – Bloomberg
Featuring the Q2 East End Corcoran Report, Tim Davis and his two-time Wooldon Manor sale, and Susan Breitenbach and her Kellis Pond sale, Bridgehampton
Wooldon Manor On Southampton’s Gin Lane Is Sold Again
7/21/2014 – Southampton Press
Featuring Tim Davis’ sale at 16 Gin Lane, Southampton, The Hamptons
Hamptons Estate Sells in Two Deals Totaling More Than $80 Million
7/18/2014 – The Wall Street Journal
Featuring Tim Davis’ Wooldon Manor sale
At Home with Tim Davis: The Hamptons Luxury Market Leader
7/18/2014 – Hamptons Magazine
“I am not simply representing a home, this is an important investment and lifestyle choice for my clients. 100% client satisfaction is the ranking I strive for and cementing lifetime relationships that go beyond any list.” – Tim Davis
Hamptons Magazine: You were just ranked by The Wall Street Journal as the #4 Real Estate Professional in volume in the United States. How does it feel?
Tim Davis: It was quite an accomplishment and actually feels pretty good. My immediate focus is on understanding the luxury market and that requires my constant vigilance. I am not simply representing a home, this is an important investment and lifestyle choice for my clients. 100% client satisfaction is the ranking I strive for and cementing lifetime relationships that go beyond any list.
HM: How did you become a true power broker?
TD: I have always believed in a strong work ethic. From the beginning of my career 33 years ago, I viewed each transaction and opportunity as a future stepping-stone and building block. I am probably the only career agent in the market.
HM: The homes you sell are exceptional properties. What do you learn about these listings that successfully draw in high-figure deals time and again?
TD: Buyers will pay the highest price for a home or property in the most prime locations. They will sacrifice the structure for the sake of a great parcel of land or a particular waterfront or oceanfront setting.
HM: You have an impressive roster of listings, what do you look for when representing a property?
TD: For me there needs to be some element of singular quality, whether it is location, architecture, or style. A 30 room mansion in the estate section obviously has a different appeal than let’s say a pristine Sagaponack beach house. In some ways, they both represent the breadth of our inventory and the worldwide appeal to this real estate market.
HM: Any notable sale? Estates or clients who you enjoyed working with the most?
TD: I have had the privilege of working with some of the most important and influential individuals in business, finance, and the entertainment industry. Very often, these transactions are handled quietly and confidentially. A current notable transaction was my very recent sale of Wooldon Manor on Gin Lane for a second time in 6 months. This is record breaking even for my own career.
HM: What is a typical “day in the life” for you?
TD: My day starts early and each one is different. It is one of the things that are so incredibly enjoyable about this business. Each day is new and presents fresh challenges and opportunities. I’m a big believer in being available to my clients and customers, so I’m often checking emails and messages early in the morning till late in the evening.
HM: As a native of the Hamptons, would you ever consider working elsewhere, or do you consider this your home turf, your domain?
TD: I love living here, It has been a uniquely wonderful place to raise my family. On top of that, I am fortunate to be able to work in one of the most vibrant stable markets in the world, moments from my doorstep. We are a luxury brand, providing services to buyers and sellers from around the globe, My client list is both national and international, this is because we offer them an invaluable understanding of the Hamptons luxury real estate market. I live and breathe the business, and along with my family, it’s the fabric of my life.
HM: On a different note, what is your favorite local meal?
TD: There are so many. I would recommend trying the wood oven roasted chicken at Nick and Toni’s, as one.
Southampton mansion Wooldon Manor sells for $80 million
7/17/2014 – Newsday
Featuring Tim Davis’ Wooldon Manor sale
Hedge-Funder Flips His Historic Southampton Estate For $80 Million
7/17/2014 – BusinessInsider.com
Featuring Tim Davis’ two-time Wooldon Manor sale
Deeds & Don’ts: Waterfront Gems in Sag Harbor, Southampton Village and East Hampton
7/15/2014 – Hamptons Cottages & Gardens
Featuring Tim Davis, Zachary Vichinsky & Cody Vichinsky’s listing at 436 Gin Lane, Southampton, The Hamptons
Mike Olson Says Waterfront Homes Still Best Sellers
7/11/2014 – Hamptons Magazine
Featuring East End agent Tim Davis, and his sales
The Lay of the Land: Privet Hedge Dinner
7/1/2014 – AVENUE
Power plays in the Hamptons real estate market came together at the Sebonack Gold Club to toast the industry’s best, at the inaugural awards ceremony hosted by Manhattan Media and publishers of Dan’s Papers, AVENUE and AVENUE at the Beach.
1. Michael Gross 2. Hara Kang, James Keogh and Justin Agnello 3. Deborah Loeffler 4. D. Herman 5. Tim Davis, Susan Breitenbach and Paul Brennan 6. Aaron Curti 7. Gary DePersia & Judge Edward Burke 8. Tresa Hall 9. Judi Desiderio and Nancy McGann
The Deals (and Big Dealer) of The Year
7/1/2014 – AVENUE
“It was a big deal to have a local map at that time” Timothy Davis says of his earliest days as a real estate broker on Long Island’s East End, when its back-road shortcuts were still a local secret. What is now arguably the most exposed summer community on the planet was terra incognita to the then-junior college student, even though he’d grown up in nearby Mastic Beach and his fiancée hailed from Hampton Bays. “I didn’t know the territory a bit” Davis admits.
He’s come a short distance, but a long way.
A broker in Corcoran’s Southampton office, Davis has just had the best year any broker has ever had in the Hamptons. In his 33rd season in real estate, he not only made $430 million worth of deals but attached his name to four of the East End’s nine biggest transactions of 2013. Those were the sales of Wooldon Manor, a 14.5-acre great estate in that town’s Gin Lane, for $75 million; 408 First Neck Lane on Lake Agawam, for $28 million; and 1260 and 1900 Meadow Lane, the former homes of Snapple’s late founder Arnold Greenberg, sold for $25 million, and the late financier Ted Forstmann, sold for $24 million.
That set of deals was more than enough to win Davis the first-ever Big Deal Broker honor at the inaugural Privet Hedge Awards dinner held in May at Southampton’s Sebonack Golf Club. (The awards were treated by Manhattan Media, which publishes AVENUE, AVENUE on the Beach and Dan’s Papers.
Davis could conceivably qualify for the same prize next year.
Wooldon Manor is already back on the market, with an asking price of $98 million.
Not long ago, that price figure, if achieved, would have been a record-setter. But just before the launch of the current summer season, the Further Lane estate of the late investment advisor Christopher Browne was quietly sold to a controversial hedge-fund runner for a jaw-dropping $147 million, the most expensive sale of a private residence in American history. That particular purchase, by JANA Partners founder Barry Rosenstein, was significant for another reason: Like the third and fourth biggest sales of 2013, it was reportedly completed without the payment of a brokerage commission. And in journalistic calculations, three instances is a certified trend.
When I asked Lester Weindling, the real estate investor who sold 29 Spaeth Lane in East Hampton for $32.5 million in August, who’d listed his house, he said, “No, no no.” There was no broker. “There was no listing at all,” he said. Then he admitted using something called “a courtesy broker” for what he described to me as “a deal done among equals.” He added that that’s “what a deal ought to be.”’
Though Rosenstein makes a good part of his living collecting big fees from investors in his hedge fund, he apparently agrees. No commission was paid on his record-setting purchase, either, says someone else who is in a position to know. But, as with Weindling’s sale, and despite published reports to the contrary, a broker was involved.
Rosenstein surely owes that broker big-time, but this columnist – having researched the pugnacious hedgie while writing a book about his Manhattan residence, 15 Central Park West – feels obliged to add that the Hamptons brokerage community might be better off without the business of a man who named one of his funds Piranha and once bragged about making a corporate opponent retch in a negotiation.
Hamptons real estate was a gentler endeavor than it is today when Tim Davis started his career, Davis worked with his mother-in-law in Shinnecock Hills for three years, then joined Southampton’s Agawam Realty, becoming its top broker and office manager and expanding the realty’s reach to East Hampton. After Davis and his wife had a child, he accepted a longstanding offer from the Hamptons brokerage giant, Allan M. Schneider, to join his company. A year and a half later, Davis says, “Allan dies,” and nine months after that, Davis and five colleagues bought the company from Schneider’s estate. They then ran the business for 15 years, as it grew to 12 offices and 350 brokers. Meanwhile, one partner died, one retired and one was fired, culminating in the company’s sale to Corcoran in 2006.
When he first started in real estate, Davis says, “It was a time of high inflation and high interest rates. People would rush to lock in [a mortgage] at 17 percent:’ There were few exclusives; listings were “handwritten with stapled Polaroids”; and “a beach house cost $1 million.” He recalls selling two acres on Meadow Lane for $350,000. Those were the days.
Things had begun changing by the late ’80s, [but] Hamptons home prices were rising; “We still had open space; land was slowly being developed,” Davis remembers. Then came the market crash of 1987, followed by a few difficult years. But by the early ’90s, the real estate market was on the upswing again. At age 32, Davis, the youngest partner at Schneider, scored his first two big deals. He sold Westerly, a 25-room brick Georgian estate in Southampton, for a record $8 million-“a huge deal back then;’ Davis says – to Ronald Perelman’s legal advisor Howard Gittis. (It was later bought by fashion maven Tory Burch for $38.5 million.) Davis also sold the same house on the ocean at 1260 Meadow Lane that he sold again this year; back then, it cost $5 million.
The realtor ultimately managed Corcoran’s Southampton office for four years, but stepped aside after the 2010 season to return to full-time brokerage work. In 2012, he was Corcoran’s second-best East End earner, and at year’s end he wrote down a New Year’s resolution that stated, “I want to be # 1.”
His wish came true last year. Including his record-setters, he was involved in six oceanfront home sales; six deals where the purchase price exceeded $20 million; and “various others for $10 or $15 million. And it all added up,” he says, hastening to add that, “I don’t want to be obnoxious. A lot of people work very hard, but it happened to be a year [for me] when it all came together.”
Indeed, the last year came together well for many. Consider this list of the biggest pre- Rosenstein sales in the Hamptons. Then, wish that at least one of those checks had been made payable to you:
8. 466 Gin Lane, Southampton, was sold for $21,632,455 by Michael and Margaret Naughton. Naughton deflected a request to say where he got that kind of money, describing himself as “kind of an unimportant guy.” So how did he get to Gin Lane? “I got a good deal on it:’ he said. The house last changed hands in 2003, for $11.375 million. The new owners are Neil and Gina Smith. He is a corporate consultant and business book author.
7. (A two-way tie):
39 Fairfield Pond Land, Sagaponack, sold for $24 million. Philip Johnson designed the modernist eight-bedroom house, on 3.6 acres, in 1945, for Eugene and Margaret Farney. Farney was the co-founder of America’s first coin-operated self-service laundry.
1900 Meadow Lane, Southampton, sold for $24 million. It belonged to the estate of the late private equity mogul and noted playboy, Theodore Forstmann.
6. (A three-way tie):
322 Ocean Road, Bridgehampton, a parcel of undeveloped land, was sold for $25 million by Topping Investments LLC. The Toppings are long-time residents of Bridgehampton.
320 Murray Place, Southampton, fetched $25 million. Owned by heirs to the Kulukundis shipping fortune, it was occupied by Michael Kulukundis’ widow Tara Tyson Kulukundis until her husband’s family sought a court order to evict her.
1260 Meadow Lane, Southampton, sold for $25 million.
5. 408 First Neck Lane I Southampton, brought businessman Richard M. Burdge Sr. $28 million, less a commission.
4. 209 Dune Road, Water Mill, was sold for $31 million-with no broker-by Stuart and Marni Hersch. He is the president and CEO of Cantor’ Fitzgerland’s Cantor LifeMarkets, which operates at the crossroads of the finance and insurance industries.
3. 29 Spaeth Lane, East Hampton, brought $32.5 million to seller Lester Weindling.
2. 52 Further Lane, East Hampton, was the year’s most publicized Hamptons sale, because Steven A. Cohen, who spent $62.5 million to buy it, ran SAC Capital, the embattled (and since downsized and renamed) hedge fund at the center of the noisiest insider trading investigation of recent times.
1. Wooldon Manor, 16 Gin Lane, Southampton, sold for $75 million. Vince Camuto, the shoe designer and founder of Nine West, had put the house on the market thinking he’d later sell four adjacent undeveloped parcels. But Scott Bommer, founder of SAB Capital, a hedge fund, wanted it all and agreed to buy it-and most of the furniture in the house, too-after a weekend-long negotiation. “But he’d always wanted East Hampton ocean-front:’ says someone close to Bommer. So he almost immediately bought three properties on prestigious Lily Pond Lane there for a reported $94 million and put the enlarged Southampton estate back on the market, asking $98 million. Even in the Hamptons, one realtor allows, that was a “rather shocking” turnaround. But it was just another day in the life of a big-deal broker.
Hamptons Estate of Jack Nash to List for $38.5 million
6/27/2014 – The Wall Street Journal
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing on Mecox Bay, Water Mill, The Hamptons
New York well represented in Real Trends’ top brokers list
6/27/2014 – The Real Deal
Featuring agents Carrie Chiang, Janet Wang, Tim Davis, Susan Breitenbach, and Tamir Shemesh & The Shemesh Team
House of the Day: Late Hedge Fund Tycoon’s Historic Hamptons Compound Is Selling For $38.5 Million
6/27/2014 – BusinessInsider.com
Featuring Tim Davis’ Water Mill listing
Luxe listings: New York and Florida
6/11/2014 – New York Post
Featuring Zachary Vichinsky, Tim Davis and Jonathan Davis’ listing at 249 Jobs Lane, Bridgehampton; Robby Browne and Benjamin Gernandt’s listing at 41 West 70th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan; and Candace Friis’ listing at 566 Palm Way, Gulf Stream, Palm Beach
The Priciest Top 10 Ever
6/10/2014 – Unique Homes
Featuring Gabriella Dufwa & Paul Anand’s listing at 12 East 69th Street, Upper East Side; Deborah Grubman & David Dubin’s listing at 1 Beacon Court, 151 East 58th Street, Midtown East, Manhattan; and Tim Davis’ Woolden Manor listing at 16 Gin Lane, Southampton, The Hamptons
Pricey Hamptons homes shatter records
6/1/2014 – The Real Deal
Featuring Tim Davis and Peter Huffine’s sale at 16 Gin Lane; Don Gleasner and Tim Davis’ sale at 408 First Neck Lane; and Tim Davis’ sale at 1260 Meadow Lane, Southampton: The Hamptons
The Inside Scoop on East End Real Estate
5/28/2014 – Hamptons Cottages & Gardens
Featuring Tim Davis’ Woolden Manor sale and listing at 16 Gin Lane, Southampton
Home Tour: A Treehouse-Style Mansion in Sagaponack
5/23/2014 – Hamptons Magazine
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing at 612 Sagg Main, Sagaponack, The Hamptons
Best of Hamptons Real Estate Honored at Privet Hedge Dinner
5/15/2014 – Dan’s Papers
Featuring East End agents Tim Davis and Susan Breitenbach, honored at the inaugural Privet Hedge Dinner, as well as Corcoran’s Executive Vice President, Director of Sales Teresa Hall
News 12: Sagaponack’s $26.5M home, and more
5/14/2014 – News 12 Long Island
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing at 612 Sagg Main Street, Sagaponack, The Hamptons
News 12: 3 Southampton homes with 8-digit asking prices
5/7/2014 – News 12 Long Island
Featuring Tim Davis’ Wooldon Manor, Evan Kulman’s Modern Oceanfront listing, Southampton
Southampton estate returns to market, for $98 million
4/25/2014 – Newsday
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing at 16 Gin Lane, Southampton, The Hamptons:
The Hamptons
4/10/2014 – The New York Times
As the spring real estate season revs up to high gear, luxury properties in one of the nation’s most desirable – and 71wst expensive – areas are coming onto the market at ever-higher prices. With inventory low and demand high, homes in the Hamptons are already selling briskly at premium levels, in some cases even beyond the high points before the post-Lehman Brothers market sell-off even at these levels, demand could remain strong into the summer.
“The market is very good right now in the Hamptons for both rentals and for sales,” said Susan Breitenbach, associate broker with The Corcoran Group. “There is a lot of money floating around at the moment, and I can’t foresee anything but a very busy spring and summer here in residential real estate.”
Breitenbach is showing a 7,000-square-foot, Gambrel-styled custom-built home at 461 Ocean Road in Bridgehampton that was built last year on 2.1 acres. On the market for $14,995,000, the new-construction home comes with Michael Reilly custom mahogany windows and doors; covered porches off every room; a finished lower level with a media room; and, outdoors, a fireplace with loggia, lawn and gardens by landscape designer Edmund Hollander. There is also a pitch-and-putt putting green, a sunken stone-walled tennis court, a separate clubhouse with high-tech glass doors and a private gated drive.
The expansive views over the 13.2-acre agricultural reserve adjacent to the property are protected. The reserve and the new home can be purchased together for $29,995,000. “If the buyer wants a true compound, they could build a 12,000-square-foot residence next door on the reserve, use the current home as a guest house with tennis, putting green, pool, pool house, clubhouse – and create a mini-resort,” suggested Breitenbach. “Or they could build a horse farm, a vineyard or an apple orchard. It is difficult to find a 2.1-acre property off Ocean Road in Bridgehampton, and this has the option of even more space if you want it.”
Water Mill is one of the most premier areas south of the highway on Long Island’s south shore – with major properties listing at a range of price points. In Water Mill South, 6 Calf Creek Court is located on 1.25 acres on a dead-end road near an inlet to Mecox Bay, and is not far from Mecox Beach on the Atlantic Ocean. The 10,620-square-foot, seven-bedroom home was designed in and out by developer/designer James Michael Howard, who is renowned in the area for his meticulous designs and furnishings.
This house is being sold completely furnished ¬with rugs and lighting by David Weeks, the modern lighting designer. One lighting fixture alone is $15,000. Most of the furniture in Howard’s homes is custom made for the spaces he designs, and the architecture unduplicated. All the latest technology is built in, with antique French crystal lighting, multiple layers of lacquer, and artwork already installed. One of the living rooms features a bowed ceiling, while the unusual dining room ceiling features an elliptical design adorned with gold tea leaf paper.
Outside, the oversized loggia are designed for al fresco dining on a grand scale, with a massive lawn, heated 55-foot gunite pool with spa and a three-room cabana that includes living room, exercise room and spa bath with massage area. “This is James Michael Howard’s third ground-up construction house in the Hamptons, and still, buyers don’t expect this level of detail and taste,” said Martha Gundersen, associate broker with Brown Harris Stevens. “His architectural detailing and understanding of furniture styling and function are superb, and he has a real understanding of how to mix the classical and modern elements of design. At $11.95 million, this is an excellent price when you consider that the interiors, and even the pillows and sheets, are included. In my opinion, he does it better than anyone else out here: first translating the desires of clients, and then exceeding expectations.”
Water Mill is also home to some ideal beachfront properties. The four-plus-bedroom, three-full-bath beach house at 1341 Flying Point Road sits atop a dune with direct views of the ocean on one side and Mecox Bay on the other. The home is at the eastern end of a peninsula, with only one neighbor in sight. With unpainted wood interiors, an oversize stone fireplace and a gourmet kitchen, the home looks out over an area popular with surfers and parasailers. A unique indoor/ outdoor shower has a sliding wall designed to allow bathers to step from the outside shower into the private bathroom indoors.
This contemporary-style, year-round home, with an optional fifth bedroom that can serve as an office, is on the market for $13,950,000. “All the living spaces have views, and the sun just pours in,” said Lynda Packard, sales agent with Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Southampton. “You’ve got sunrise out of the ocean to the east, and sunset into Mecox Bay on the west. It is so rare to have both. And then with the bay, you can go crabbing, sailing and waterskiing – so the home is ideal for people who love any kind of watersports and the beach.”
Another home on Flying Point Road is a four-acre compound listing for $20,999,000. The estate comprises two separate but adjacent parcels, one with a 14,000-square-foot, eight-bedroom manor home, a 50-by-20-foot pool, and a pool house and outdoor kitchen with bar, all ideal for entertaining. The second site, on the slightly larger 2.l-acre parcel, includes a tennis court with a self-regulating, adjustable Hydro-Court system that maintains optimal moisture at all times, and a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom guesthouse.
The main shingle-style home, built in 2009 and wired with a Crestron system for lighting, sound and security, also offers a massive finished lower level with screening room, wine cellar, gym with sauna and staff quarters. The land value alone for the guesthouse parcel would be about $5 million. “The entire offering can be a fabulous family compound, or it can be bought separately with the intention of selling the other lot,” suggested Nanette Rosenberg, sales agent with Brown Harris Stevens.
Another Water Mill estate, this one directly on Mecox Bay, was built in 1919 and recently underwent a massive five-year-long restoration. Now comprising 11 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms, the massive structure combines turn-of-the-century splendor, complete with grand entertaining rooms, with the latest 21st century technology installed by a team of designers and architects, who replaced just about everything inside, from the plumbing, heating and air conditioning to the electrical connections. They finished the third floor and lower level, added a garage and built an atrium dining room in the southeast wing. There are now three dining spaces: a formal dining room, an informal dining room and a breakfast room. Landscape architect Edmund Hollander was brought in to restore the gardens and add layers of evergreen landscape for privacy.
The main event of the 22,000-square-foot under-taking, which includes the renovated carriage house and separate gatehouse for the asking price of $49.5 million, was the restoration of the three-story spiral staircase in the entrance foyer. “The transformation is completely done now, and that is the key,” said Tim Davis, associate broker with The Corcoran Group. “50 many buyers today want to move in without any work – whether it is new construction or a renovation. Here, they know the owner hired a highly regarded architect and builder, who were involved for many years, to make this home great again. To have this kind of water frontage of over 1,000 feet with a dock and a guest house and a pool – which does not block the natural water views – is special.”
Situated on 8.4 pastoral acres located a mile from the beach on the Sagaponack/Wainscott border, 55 Town Line Road is a new-construction, eight-bedroom modern farmhouse with two master suites. Amenities include a north/south-facing sunken Har-Tru tennis court (no sun in the eyes), a resort-style 80-foot pool and spa, and an artfully designed Balinese-style pool house with a covered open-air lounge. The home also offers a wine cellar/tasting room, fitness studio, steam room and a state-of-the-art screening room. The third floor entertaining terrace is accessible via elevator and, with its own kitchenette and outdoor speakers, is ideal for cocktails or a glass of wine.
The property is on the market for $22,950,000.
“There are no neighbors to the south, east and west (the neighbor is to the north, where the driveway is), so the views will never be obstructed,” said Lilly Schonwald de la Motte, sales agent with The Corcoran Group. “One other cool element is the polycarbonate, German-made pool cover, which is translucent – and motorized. It is backlit, and very dramatic looking year round. To have this much land in a south-of-the-highway location is a coup for any buyer. The house is also recently – and meticulously – built with tennis and pool house, and the combination of the land, new construction and sophisticated design fits well into the Sagaponack farm house vernacular.”
For classic Hamptons, 180 Great Plains Road in Southampton Village is in the heart of Southampton’s estate section on the corner of Coopers Neck Lane. The sub-dividable, eight-acre, six-bedroom property, currently on the market for the first time in more than 60 years, can be reached after driving the long driveway. The house is located on the site of the original Villa Mille Fiore, modeled in 1910 after the Villa Medici in Rome, and torn down in the early 1960s.
Either parcel – the 4.4 acre or the 3.5 acre – could stand alone. “The carriage house is on the larger 4.4¬acre lot, and includes a pool and a pool house. Then, on the smaller lot is a tennis court, a garage and two cottages from the early 1900s. For the $36 million price you get the complete package, the carriage house, two cottages, tennis, pool – everything,” said Michaela Keszler, associate broker with Douglas Elliman Real Estate. “Or you could keep a cottage as a guesthouse – and then build your dream house on either of the two lots – or just sell the other lot. Buying a property that has been in one family for more than a half century makes it a very rare find – and you couldn’t find a more ideal location so close to the beach and Southampton Village.”
32 Middle Lane in East Hampton South is a classic 5.5-acre estate that is on the market for $35.5 million. Located within walking distance of the venerable Maidstone Club, the 8,268-square-foot, six-bedroom traditional trophy home, designed by architect Amayar Embry II in 1931, features a pool, pond and acres of sprawling lawn, mature landscaping and specimen trees, including a giant copper beech as a centerpiece, that lead to a guesthouse. The buyer will be only the third owner of this home in 81 years.
“With the prices going the way they are going, the price is very reasonable,” said Paul Brennan, Hampton’s regional manager for Douglas Elliman Real Estate. “The market for prime luxury homes is strong at a time when there is not a lot of inventory, and land is selling at a premium. Vacant land sales and new houses are driving the market higher and higher – even for an older house like this one, where the 5.5 acres alone would be worth around $20 million. In the Hamptons, new buyers often knock down houses that are only 10 or even five years old, and you have to be an old house aficionado to renovate. In any case, the land is extraordinary. That is what you fall in love with.”
Copyright © 2014 The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission.
The Most Expensive House in the Hamptons — and the Cheapest!
4/6/2014 – Patch.com
Featuring Tim Davis’ 16 Gin Lane Estate listing
Hot Properties: What will $550K get you in the Hamptons for the summer?
4/3/2014 – Fox Business
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing at 515 Parsonage Lane, Sagaponack, The Hamptons, as seen on “Money with Melissa Francis” and “After The Bell”
Hot Properties: Outrageous summer rentals: What you get for $550K
4/3/2014 – Fox Business
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing at 515 Parsonage Lane, Sagaponack, The Hamptons, as seen on “After The Bell”
Hot Properties: The high-end kitchen of a $12.9M Hamptons home
4/3/2014 – Fox Business
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing at 515 Parsonage Lane, Sagaponack, The Hamptons, as seen on “The Willis Report”
High hopes in the Hamptons: East End market warms up
3/24/2014 – The Real Deal
Featuring East End agent Susan Breitenbach as well as Tim Davis’ sale & listing at 16 Gin Lane, Southampton
Private Properties: Hedge Fund Magnate Makes Second Big Hamptons Buy for $93.9 Million
3/21/2014 – The Wall Street Journal
Featuring Tim Davis’ listing and surrounding properties at 16 Gin Lane, Southampton
Photos
Take the Rich Cribs quiz: What home is priciest?
3/5/2014 – Newsday
Featuring Tim Davis’ Meadow Lane listing, Southampton
‘Power Brokers’: Tips From The Top
3/1/2014 – Southampton Press
Featuring Corcoran’s President and CEO Pamela Liebman, Executive Vice President, Director of Sales Tresa Hall, and agents Lilly de la Motte (Rookie of the Year), as well as Tim Davis and Peter Huffine’s closing at 16 Gin Lane
Properties of the Month: Exquisite Captain’s Neck Lane
3/1/2014 – AVENUE
EXQUISITE CAPTAIN’S NECK LANE
This wonderful top-quality traditional residence, with over 7,000 square feet of interior space boasts beautiful living areas throughout There are four finished levels, with a total of seven bedrooms and six-and-a-half baths. Included is a generous master suite with private sun deck and sitting room The third-floor playroom and lower-level game room allow for enjoying rainy summer days indoors; so too does the very large enclosed screen porch. Outside you will find a beautiful swimming pool 50 feet in length adjacent to the pool house. Exclusive. $6,375,000. Contact Tim Davis @ 631.283.7300 x211.
Corcoran’s East End Award Ceremony
2/19/2014 – Brokers Weekly
Left to Right: Corcoran president and CEO Pamela Liebman; Tim Davis, Corcoran Southampton agent; executive vice president of Sales, Tresa Hall.
The Corcoran Group held its annual East End awards ceremony, celebrating the achievements of the region’s top performing agents in 2013. The event was held at The Southampton Social Club in Southampton, N.Y. Awarding the individual honors were Corcoran president and CEO, Pamela Liebman, and executive vice president of sales, Tresa Hall. Nine East End agents were named to Corcoran’s President’s Council, Corcoran’s highest honor which recognizes the firm’s top performers. They were Susan Breitenbach (inset left) of the Bridgehampton office; Tim Davis of Southampton, Gary DePersia, Bryan Midlam and Michael Schultz of East Hampton; Arlene Reckson of Amagansett; Mala Sander of Sag Harbor and the Cee Scott Brown and Jack Pearson Team of Sag Harbor and Bridgehampton, respectively. Tim Davis was also named Top East End Agent, Highest Rental Price achieved in 2013 and co-winner of Top Deal, South Fork with co-listing agent and fellow Corcoran Southampton agent Peter Huffine. The 2013 Top Deal of the South Fork was the sale of Wooldon Manor in Southampton, which closed in December for an East End record of $75 million. Tim also brought the buyer to the property.
Now’s the time to snag that Hamptons summer rental
2/13/2014 – New York Post
Featuring East End Executive Managing Director Ernie Cervi and agent Tim Davis, as well as Summer Rental listings for agents Gina Surerus & Hally Dinkel on Shelter Island ($17K), Marcella O’Callaghan in Southampton ($275K), and Bonita DeWolf in Amagansett ($495K).
The Ten Biggest Hamptons Sales of 2013
2/12/2014 – Curbed
Featuring Tim Davis and Peter Huffine’s Woolden Manor sale and Tim Davis & Linda Nasta’s sale at 1900 Meadow Lane, Southampton
Hamptons House: Make Mine New
2/9/2014 – The New York Times
The view from Sagg Main Street in Sagaponack, N.Y., captures the Hamptons generally: new houses going up, often in place of old ones. One veteran builder estimates that “90 percent of buyers prefer new.” Adam Macchia for The New York Times
In the Hamptons, where million-dollar vacation homes are snapped up like flea-market finds and $10 million spec homes are in such high demand that their developers could moonlight as fortunetellers were they not so busy building more, buying new has become not only the fashion but the first choice. Buying vintage tends to spawn repair and renovation headaches; choosing turnkey promises convenience and five-star amenities.
To find appropriate settings for new construction, tearing down an old house, far from being vilified, is standard operating procedure as land grows ever scarcer and more expensive.
From Westhampton to Montauk, buyers (and renters, too, especially those willing to write a six-figure check for a summer spot) are on the same attitudinal and aspirational wavelength: new is better, more sustainable, and infinitely richer in amenities than old.
“The demand is absolutely there,” said Enzo Morabito, a broker at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, “and builders are hitting buyers’ sweet spots at a variety of price points in a variety of locations. This is like Disneyland: people don’t come out here to make their lives more complicated. They come out to relax, and buying turnkey is part of that. Some even buy the house already furnished. People want the whole package.”
Occasionally, picky buyers commission a custom-built retreat on the site of a teardown. “You’re seeing teardowns, not necessarily of the golden oldies, but of the ranches from the ‘60s and ‘70s on half-acre or acre lots now worth far more than the homes that sit on them,” said Anthony DeVivio, a managing director of Halstead Property. “And what’s being built in their place is making the landscape more interesting.”
If trees and vegetation succumb in the knockdown process, no worries: that’s for the landscapers to remedy.
“Teardowns are being snatched up by developers with a build-and-beautify mind-set,” said Aspasia G. Comnas, an executive managing director of Brown Harris Stevens. “In the second-home market, most buyers are not interested in doing any work; they just want to bring their toothbrush and move in. The opportunity to buy something brand-new has caused a shift in the low-to-middle range where people are valuing structure over location.”
The look of the homes is evolving as well: modern is making a comeback, but modern in the guise of barnlike. “The modern barn is the Hamptons equivalent of the TriBeCa loft,” Ms. Comnas said.
Traditionally, the most desirable territory was south of Montauk Highway, where the ocean is. But the line of demarcation has blurred, and properties north of the highway have become desirable because buyers a bigger bang for their big bucks.
“Buyers spending $4 million to $6 million, and sometimes even less,” said Zachary Vichinsky of the Corcoran Group, “are demanding the same amenities you get in a $20 million house.”
The nexus of the Hamptons McMansion production line, the Farrell Building Company, currently has 30 spec homes in various stages of construction, mostly in the $3 million to $10 million range, and mostly in Amagansett and Bridgehampton. Mr. Farrell said he scaled down the grandeur of his spec properties “after the meltdown in 2009, when everything in the Hamptons came to a standstill.”
“I’d say 90 percent of buyers prefer new,” added Mr. Farrell, whose footprint includes Farrell Court in Water Mill, “and right now we’re selling three new houses a month. When the finance guys on Wall Street get the feeling that interest rates are going to go up, they swarm in and buy. There is an unbelievable appetite for homes in this price range. It’s like the difference between a $150,000 Bentley and the $350,000 Bentley: both are great, but 15 times as many people are able to buy the cheaper car.”
According to the latest Elliman market report for the fourth quarter of 2013, the average Hamptons sales price was $1.57 million, the average price of luxury properties $7.1 million. At the upper end of that spectrum, buyers seem willing to spend freely for land, new construction and the removal of past-their-shelf-date houses.
“The 2014 Hamptons market appears to be shaping up to see continued stability in prices, more new development, but not quite enough additional inventory to satisfy demand,” said Jonathan J. Miller, the president of the real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel, who prepared the report. “Wall Street had a little better year compensation-wise, and that figures to play into keeping demand steady.”
This old-looking new East Hampton house that Michele and Thomas Bass rented for two years while house-hunting turned out to be The One. Adam Macchia for The New York Times
The political provocateur Bill O’Reilly of Fox News encountered no raised eyebrows when he recently paid $7.65 million for a musty Montauk bungalow on a prime 1.5 acre oceanfront bluff only to immediately tear it down (the house, not the bluff); Mr. Farrell was retained to fashion a pristine replacement.
Seven to eight million dollars per acre is the going price for oceanfront property in hipster-and-surfer-approved Montauk, formerly the funky final frontier of the Hamptons. The sales volume there rose 60 percent last year, according to a report by Judi Desiderio, the chief executive of Town & Country Real Estate, the brokerage that had the listing Mr. O’Reilly bought.
“There’s nowhere left to go, we’re the end of the island, and we’re in with the in-crowd,” said Nancy Keeshan of John Keeshan Real Estate, one of Montauk’s oldest firms. “It’s like their grandparents bought in Southampton, their parents in East Hampton, and now the 30-something generation with the means to buy in the Hamptons is coming out to Montauk and giving it a face-lift.”
According to Ms. Keeshan, fixer-uppers can still be had for $550,000 and up; houses within walking distance of a beach are $1 million to $2 million; and places on the waterfront with 21st-century amenities start at $3 million, $9 million on the ocean.
Irene O’Gara is building her “dream house” just across the street from the ocean in Montauk’s Hither Hills enclave. After Ms. Keeshan showed her every available option under $1 million, the final property, a 0.68-acre lot with two decrepit cottages and an ocean view, won her over. “It was magic,” said Ms. O’Gara, who did not let the $2.5 million asking price dissuade her. She paid around $2.1 million for the lot, had the cottages knocked down after ruling out renovation, and hopes to have the shingle-style compound that will be her primary residence — a four-bedroom main house “with hurricane-impact Marvin windows,” a pool house with spa, and a garage — completed by this summer.
“Clearly the beauty of building new is that it gives one the opportunity to create everything state-of-the-art, keeping energy and environmental concerns front and center,” she said. “I want it to look like it’s always been a part of the Montauk landscape.”
In Southampton Village, another hot spot where new construction can cause a buyer stampede even before the house is finished or listed, the volume of sales increased by 62 percent over 2012, Ms. Desiderio’s report noted, and the total amassed through sales last year was just over $507 million, with the fourth quarter accounting for $167 million. Many houses were new, with seductive extras like theaters, spas, playrooms, outdoor kitchens, elevators and wine cellars, in addition to the usual pool and tennis court.
“The only thing better than the smell of a new car is the smell of a new house,” Ms. Desiderio said. “Just the 1 percent of buyers seems to want old and antique.”
Whitney Casey and her husband, Nav Sooch, who have a home in Austin, Tex., and a 170-year-old SoHo loft as their pied-à-terre, were certain they wanted an authentic Victorian in Southampton village as their summer home. But they changed their minds after doing extensive shopping with Harald Grant of Sotheby’s International Realty. Ceiling height and lack of bathrooms were a concern.
“The Victorians looked quaint from the outside,” Ms. Casey said, “but you’d go inside and find out that not only was there no master bath, but some barely had bathrooms at all. And at six feet tall, I felt like Alice in Wonderland, like I was way too big for the house.”
She was riding her bike on a village lane when she noticed an unfinished gambrel-style farmhouse on a construction site (its incongruous predecessor on the prime 0.4-acre lot was a tiny vinyl-sided cottage). After being taken on an impromptu tour of the seven-bedroom seven-and-a-half-bath house by its builder, Louis Follo, she revised her priorities. The Lutron automated home-technology control system, the pool house, the four fireplaces and the 5,672 square feet of space — gosh, here was a house, priced at $5.7 million, where you could “plug in and play,” as she put it, and not fret about necessary upgrades.
“We’d had all these conditions, like the house couldn’t be big, it had to be old and quaint; basically it couldn’t be everything our house ended up being,” Ms. Casey said. “I was a little worried about telling my husband it had an elevator, but I think what sold him on it was the quality of the construction. And that it made me happy.”
The elevator, which doubles as a dumbwaiter, makes Cowboy, their four-pound Yorkie, happy, too.
Even in Sag Harbor, a former whaling village where owning a house with a quaint facade is for all intents and purposes a mandatory zoning stipulation, buyers want their charm wrapped in a ribbon of redone, according to Terry Cohen of Saunders & Associates.
”I’ve seen the pendulum swing progressively toward new,” she said, ”especially with land prices doubling in some areas. And in an up market, it pays to buy new: Not just the Wall Street types are realizing that this is a good place to park your money. When you see an inland spec house sell for $21 million,” she said, alluding to 79 Parsonage Lane in Sagaponack, built last year by the high-end developer Michael Davis, “it’s a sign that people are willing to go north of the highway if it means finding a super-great house with all the amenities on their playlist.”
Sure, many of these new houses have classic cedar shingles on the outside, but inside they are chic tabernacles of all that is design-forward, indulgent and technologically precocious. The middlebrow bungalows, Capes and ranches of yesteryear are disappearing, victims of the wrecking ball, fast becoming the most popular tool in the builders’ kit. ”Unless a house has really good bones or is grandfathered closer to the ocean than you’re allowed to build today,” Mr. Davis said, “there’s often very little reason to renovate.”
“Teardowns are becoming more common because people want new if they can get it,” said Dottie Herman, the chief executive of Douglas Elliman.
John Gicking, the brokerage manager at the East Hampton outpost of Sotheby’s, put it this way: “New, new, new is overtaking location, location, location. Builders buy a series of contiguous lots and create a neighborhood from scratch using what they know about buyers’ punch-lists — dramatic entries, ground-floor masters, media rooms, fully finished basements — to bring a brand-new product to market at a lower price point, say $2 to $4 million, than the typical estate-like custom home.”
Michele and Thomas Bass spent almost seven years searching for a vacation home in the Hamptons before realizing that the new custom-built five-bedroom house on the fringe of East Hampton village that they had rented through Martha Gundersen of Brown Harris Stevens in 2012 and 2013 was the house for them. “When we made the original decision to buy, we were looking in Amagansett,” Ms. Bass said, “but I couldn’t find anything that was right. We wanted moderate size, and something not so old that we’d have to gut and redo it. But the new construction we saw in the lanes, I felt was inflated or cookie-cutter or both.”
The rental, described in its listing as “The Modern Manor House,” was for sale, list price $4.2 million. Set on a landscaped 0.93-acre lot on a cul-de-sac, it had distinctive features like a grand 19th-century wooden front door, reclaimed beams in the den, reclaimed oak as the base of the 10-foot-long granite kitchen island, a lower-level media room, travertine patios, a heated pool and state-of-the art technology.
“As soon as I walked in, I loved it,” she said. “The windows are super-big, the woodwork is beautiful, and it looks like no other house I’ve seen. It’s off the beaten path, but just 10 minutes from Amagansett and Sag Harbor. And it’s spotless, even the utility room.”
Only when smitten by waterfront properties do buyers tend to rein in their appetite for new construction. “Really, there is nothing truly brand-new on the ocean that I know of,” said Tim Davis, a veteran broker with the Corcoran Group, “with the exception of one listing in Sagaponack. Probably the only scenario where location dictates over the trend of buyers wanting new would be waterfront: Even at the most expensive level, when it comes to buying real estate you always have to make some sort of compromise. Really, home technology is changing so drastically that you can have a home that’s four or five years old and already needs changes to the infrastructure to bring it up to speed.”
“I’m seeing that people prefer new because they want to be the first to use everything in a home,” he continued. “New means instant gratification.”
An Exception
Not every buyer chooses immaculate new construction. The recent sale for $75 million of the 84-year-old Wooldon Manor in coveted Southampton Village set a Hamptons record as the highest for a stand-alone home on a single lot.
The five-acre oceanfront Tudor-style estate is the site of the former Woolworth mansion and was owned most recently by the shoe magnate Vince Camuto. It has eight accompanying acres of pristine property, nine bedrooms, 12 and a half baths, and innumerable bells and whistles, thanks to constant renovations. The initial asking price of $48 million was bumped up to $75 million after the adjoining acreage was added, and the property promptly sold.
Yet like so many recently purchased Hamptons homes, it sits on the site of a teardown: the 50-room Woolworth mansion, circa 1900, razed in 1941 after being deemed too unwieldy and outdated to merit restoration.
The current Wooldon, still impressive at 12,000 square feet, was originally the pool house. It will be a survivor rather than a wrecking-ball victim, said Tim Davis of the Corcoran Group — a listing broker, who also represented the buyers — because the new owners will be stewards of its antiquity, like Mr. Camuto. ROBIN FINN
Copyright © 2014 The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission. Adam Macchia/The New York Times.
The New Rules of the Hamptons
2/7/2014 – The Wall Street Journal
Featuring Manhattan agent Noble Black; East End agent Susan Breitenbach; Debbie Loeffler & Julie Briggs’ listing at 351 Bridge Lane, Sagaponack; and Tim Davis & Peter Huffine’s Wooldon Manor sale, Southampton, The Hamptons
Plot of Gold
1/13/2014 – Beach
Featuring Tim Davis and Peter Huffine’s sale at 16 Gin Lane, Southampton
Snap Up This Daniels Lane Traditional for $10.95M
1/8/2014 – Curbed
Featuring Linda Nasta and Tim Davis’ Daniels Lane listing, Sagaponack, The Hamptons
