This summer’s kerfuffle involving Terry Semel — the former Yahoo
exec who has angled to build up his East Hampton property — has served
to underscore the town’s hard-core zoning laws and how they affect
neighbor relations, the Observer reported. Semel had planned to build a
10,000-square-foot main house to accompany the existing
1,600-square-foot guest house on his Further Lane property — much to
the chagrin of his hedge-funder neighbors, Jonathan and Peter Sobel.
While Semel’s plan technically violates East Hampton law, his efforts
to get an exception from the town zoning board have allegedly been
unfairly thwarted by the Sobels, he contends. “Every year there’s a new
dispute that gets all the attention,” David Eagan, an attorney for the
Sobels explained. Jerry Della Femina, an East Hampton entrepreneur, had
a more drastic take on the phenomenon of East End drama: “It doesn’t
make sense that people who Monday through Friday are used to getting
what they want no matter what would come out here on the weekends and
cooperate with each other; it’s this, ‘I’m a captain of industry, I
shouldn’t have to have neighbors’ mentality.’” [NYO]

[more]

Agents Jim Oxnam, Jennifer McGivern and the house at 40 Lee Avenue

Agents for the Breyers ice cream family are switching up their marketing scheme for an East Hampton [more]

52 Lily Pond Lane

Prudential Douglas Elliman is marketing a plot of land adjacent to Martha Stewart’s summer home in East Hampton for $7.5 million.

The one-acre property at 52 Lily Pond Lane, once part of a larger estate, contains a 1,900-square-foot carriage house and swimming pool, said Paul Brennan, Elliman’s regional manager for the East End of Long Island. It is adjacent to Stewart’s shingled home, often pictured in books and magazines, at 58 Lily Pond Lane.

There is room for a larger house on the property, Brennan said, adding that a newly built home in that location would likely fetch upwards of $15 million. The area, where Madonna is reportedly renting a house for the summer, is one of the most desirable locations in the Hamptons. [more]

Newly obtained court documents in the East Hampton tenant-landlord kerfuffle at popular nightclub Lily Pond give a backstage pass to the politics of East End leases, according to Eater, which uncovered the papers. The 2008 three-year deal between Lily Pond owners Michael Satsky and Brian Gefter, and landlord Frank Cilione, showed that Cilione collected 65 percent of the club’s profits and 20 percent of the gross alcohol sales, paying for renovations and capital improvements in exchange. The recent unpleasantness between tenant and landlord was not the result of this deal, but rather Cilione’s alleged attempt to box out Satsky and Gefter in exchange for a more lucrative deal, before the Lily Pond operators’ lease was up. The club operators have filed an injunction, while the landlord continues its eviction effort.

Baby Phat clothing line executive Kimora Lee Simmons just took a hit out east. Her East Hampton home, which had an original asking price of $800,000, just sold for $650,000. Simmons, who’s been looking to shuffle some real estate around over in the New York-New Jersey region, had originally bought the home for $690,000. But while Simmons might be hurting in her transaction, a recent ranking shows that the overall Hamptons market may be making a comeback for second home buyers.

Views of the Amagansett compound on Dune Lane

A $13 million oceanfront Amagansett residential compound at 55 Dune Lane and 61 Dune Lane has hit the market. The property includes a 2,200-square-foot house and a 700-square-foot cottage with a 600-square-foot attached garage, which has been transformed into a living space. Dawn Neway, an agent with Prudential Douglas Elliman whose listings include a nearly $20 million, 25,000-square-foot house in Wainscott, has the listing. The home and the cottage, which features a heated pool, would cost $7.65 million and $5.35 million, respectively, if purchased separately. The seller, who owns another property in East Hampton, according to Neway, primarily used the Amagansett compound as an “income-producing property,” renting it to tenants on a monthly, seasonally or yearly basis. [more]

Judi Desidiero, CEO and President of Town & Country, and an aerial view of 120 Meadow Lane, the priciest Hamptons sale in 2009

Pricey homes in the Hamptons “took a hiatus from the market this year,” according to Town & Country Real Estate’s 2009 list of the top 10 most expensive sales (see full report after jump). The top sale, a Southampton Village home at 120 Meadow Lane, which went for $25.99 million, would have ranked fifth on the 2008 list and would have just barely cracked the top 10 of the priciest 2007 sales, according to the Town & Country rankings, which takes its findings from all closings on the East End.

Judi Desiderio, CEO and President of Town & Country, said that the sales figures came as little surprise, particularly with the first half of the year showing an anemic level of activity on the East End.

“[The top 10 ranking] always reaffirms what you see in the pit,” Desiderio said. “It was an eye-opener. The high end was really taking a break.” [more]

Elie Hirschfeld’s East Hampton home

Real estate bigwig Elie Hirschfeld, president of New York metro area developer Hirschfeld Properties, has placed his oceanfront East Hampton home on the market for $25 million, according to a news release. The eight-bedroom, seven-and-a-half-bathroom mansion received a total renovation in 2002 and includes four fireplaces, a library, a private beach walkway and a heated pool. The 12,000-sqaure-foot mansion, which sits on 1.2 acres, is being represented by Sotheby’s International Realty’s Bettie Wysor. It was designed and built by John Custis Lawrence in 1920, according to the Sotheby’s listing. Hirschfeld Properties is behind New York’s first open-air garage, the Hotel Pennsylvania, and the Manhattan Mall. TRD [more]

Jeffrey Colle wants to build a 14,500-square-foot home, complete with a tennis court and pool on the 40 acres of farmland he owns on Wainscott Hollow Road in East Hampton. The mansion, which would dwarf its neighbors, one of which is the historic 1802 Edwards Farmhouse, has not been well-received by the town. His proposal was rejected on that grounds that building a subdivision — rather than a single home — requires a State Environmental Quality Review impact statement. Another proposed home on a 2.9-acre property on Sagaponack’s Hedges Lane would be 6,900 square feet with a 500-square-foot pool house. A historic 1830s farmhouse sits on the property, and the town passed a law within the last month that prevents it from being torn down.

Ted Hults, who resigned as East Hampton’s budget director last month,
pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges yesterday. Hults
illegally used funds intended for land preservation to shore up the
town’s budget, authorities said yesterday. At one point last year, the
town of East Hampton had only $900 in its reserves. Suffolk County
District Attorney Thomas Spota said Hults and East Hampton Town
Supervisor Bill McGintee replenished the preservation money from other
sources. [more]