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East End celebrity moves
Hollywood stars, business execs </br>and the media elite are buying and unloading pricey property, including</br> a $140 million Georgica Pond estate
The Hamptons real estate market heated up over the past year with a listing of one of the most expensive properties ever to come to market in the wealthy, star-studded enclave, touting a price tag of $140 million (in 2014, a Hamptons mansion sold for a record-setting $147 million). Along with that, there was the usual crop of A-listers, from business executives to reality television celebrities, who were buying, selling and renovating their pricey pads. Here is a look at some of the most notable such transactions of the past year.
Buying
Skinny Girl mogul and star of “Real Housewives of New York” Bethenny Frankel picked up a five-bedroom house with a gunite pool and guest cottage in Bridgehampton at 346 Lumber Lane earlier this year. Back on the show after a three-season break, Frankel appears to be on a property-buying spree after her 2012 divorce from pharmaceutical salesman Jason Hoppy. Last year, she reportedly paid $4.2 million for a two-bedroom condo in Soho that she
is now renovating.
On The Market
In more “Real Housewives of New York” news, show regular LuAnn de Lesseps departed the South Fork, selling her Bridgehampton house last fall for a reported $8 million to local builder Joe Farrell of the Farrell Company. He promptly tore down the 6,500-square-foot residence to build a larger one. The asking price on the new home is reportedly $20 million.
Edison Schools founder and executive Chris Whittle gets the prize for the priciest Hamptons property on the market so far this year. His 11-acre Georgica Pond estate, Briar Patch, went up for sale last November for a jaw-dropping $140 million. Its pedigree includes a 10,000-square-foot main house, a 3,500-square-foot guest house, tennis court, pool and spa, not to mention a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Brown Harris Stevens has the listing.
Still more RHONY drama in the Hamptons this year as Ramona Singer, in the middle of a divorce from husband Mario, is reportedly renting out her 7,000-square-foot Southampton manse at 39 Pheasant Close South. The six-bedroom, six-bath house was going for $300,000 from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The property is also available to rent for shorter time periods.
Meanwhile, soap opera diva Susan Lucci last summer put her 11,000-square-foot Dune Road home up for sale for $20 million. It’s still on the market. Lucci and her husband, Helmut Huber, built the house, known as Four Winds, in 1989. Douglas Elliman is the agent.
Richard Gere’s home for sale in North Haven
Another pair of Dune Road inhabitants, Tina Brown and husband Harold Evans, are trying to sell their Quogue home, on the market since last August. With three acres of land, nearly 6,000 square feet of house and 206 feet of oceanfront, the asking price for the shingled home is $9.9 million, chopped down from $12 million. Norma Reynolds of Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing.
Hollywood heartthrob Richard Gere is still trying to sell his 6.3-acre property in North Haven, known by the moniker Strong Heart Manor.
Last August, he dropped the price tag to $47.5 million, reportedly down from $65 million two years ago. It boasts 19,000 square feet of living space and has 12 bedrooms, 12 baths, a basketball court and a 60-foot heated pool. Douglas Elliman has the listing.
Sold
CNN star anchor Anderson Cooper has reportedly sold his two houses in Aspatuck Creek in Quiogue for $2.6 and $2.975 million, both of which went on
the market last September. The larger, four-bedroom house, which dates from 1928, sold in February.
Jason Kidd, Milwaukee Bucks coach and retired NBA player, will take home $7.1 million for his six-bedroom, six-bath house in Water Mill. Built in 2012, the house is set on two acres with a pool, tennis court, basketball court and putting green, making it a sports fanatic’s paradise. It reportedly went to contract in early May.
Actress Renée Zellweger unloaded her four-bedroom, beachfront East Hampton house on Egypt Lane, reportedly within a few weeks of its listing last November. The house went for $250,000 over the $4.45 million asking price. Zellweger bought the cozy 2,000-square-foot house for $2.3
million in 2003.
Renovating
Actor Alec Baldwin is expanding his historic Amagansett house, adding more than 3,300 square feet to the first and second floors. Baldwin is reportedly removing nonhistorical additions to the house, which dates from the 18th century, while improving it for 21st century living.