Last summer, when millionaire divorcée Cheryl Mercuris agreed to spend a record $500,000 to rent developer Joe Farrell’s Bridgehampton estate for two weeks, or $1,488 an hour, she did it because she was hoping that the location would help her meet men. (She says the dating scene in Tampa, Fla., where she had been living then, is subpar). One year later, Mercuris is living in Manhattan full-time and still single, but that isn’t stopping her from returning to the East End for more. According to the U.K.’s Daily Mail, the single mom says she’s rented Farrell’s so-called Sandcastle estate again this season; this time she’ll be staying there with her seven-year-old son for the entire month of July. [more]

A Bridgehampton vacationer has paid $500,000 to rent luxury homebuilder Joe Farrell’s 31,000-square-foot Sandcastle home for the first two weeks in July. That works out to $35,000 per day, or as the renter’s agent, Evan Kulman of the Corcoran Group, put it, “the highest rental transaction ever in the Hamptons.” Farrell currently lives in the nine-bedroom, 11-and-a-half-bathroom home, on the market for $49.5 million, with his family. The 612 Halsey Lane mansion, which isn’t on the water, sits on a 11.5-acre lot that includes a two-lane bowling alley, a climbing wall and a skateboard half-pipe. Last summer, MTV’s “Teen Cribs” filmed an episode there and a representative for the Jonas Brothers checked out the place on their behalf, though the boy band decided against renting it. The home was eventually rented to another taker for two weeks last August for $425,000. Farrell first listed Sandcastle for sale for $50 million last year, then increased the price to $59.5 million before the latest price cut. [Newsday]

From the August issue: In the Hamptons, as high-end builder Joe Farrell can attest, $5 million
is the new $10 million. Farrell, who founded his Bridgehampton-based
Farrell Construction in 1996, has built homes for talk show host Kelly
Ripa, actor Kelsey Grammer and former New York City mayor and
presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. Indeed, he has recently made headlines for “Sandcastle,” the
30,000-square-foot home he built on Halsey Lane in Bridgehampton, which
is on the market for $59.5 million. Last month, after the Jonas Brothers, the pop music superstars who
had been prepared to rent it, backed out, he found a taker willing to
shell out $425,000 for a two-week stay this summer. Comments

• Tweet

Newsday takes a video tour of the Sandcastle at 612 Halsey Lane in Bridgehampton, a 30,000-square-foot home which the Jonas Brothers
pop group was reportedly scoping out for a summer rental. The home,
which was built over a year and a half ending this month, according to
its developer Joe Farrell, is decked out with a 2,800-square-foot
master suite, bowling alley, rock climbing wall, a room for model trains,
media room, gym and spa with heated massage tables. [more]

The pop group Jonas Brothers is looking for a rental house in the
Hamptons, according to the Post. So far, the young brothers have
checked out Sandcastle, developer Joe Farrell’s 31,000-square-foot
house at 612 Halsey Lane in Bridgehampton, which comes with a
skateboarding ramp, bowling alley, rock-climbing wall and recording
studio. Farrell said he wants to rent out the home for just two weeks
for $500,000, although another potential renter offered him $1.5
million for the summer. The brothers also looked at the Water Mill home
that was the centerpiece of Henry Ford II’s estate. The
33,000-square-foot home has a game room, tennis court and 1,000 square
feet of oceanfront.