The Hamptons’ 10 priciest sales of the year

The 10 most expensive sales on Long Island’s East End so far this year range from a $28.5 million sale on Southampton’s ultra-ritzy Meadow Lane to the $13 million sale of the “Windmill house” in Bridgehampton.

Those eye-popping figures still don’t quite compare to the priciest sale of 2011: Florida billionaire Jeffrey Greene’s $36 million purchase of the 55-acre Tyndal Point. In fact, the top 10 sales of last year all exceeded $20 million. And 2012 is not over yet.

Below, TRD examines the most expensive residential deals to close in the first six months of this year, based on our own research and an analysis of records from Internet data providers StreetEasy, PropertyShark and Hamptons Real Estate Online.

1. $28.5 million: 322 Meadow Lane (Southampton)

322 Meadow Lane in Southampton and Marc Rowan

The $28.5 million sale of finance bigwig Marc Rowan’s six-bedroom home, which closed in February, is the most expensive deal on the East End in 2012 to date. Marcella O’Callaghan, a senior vice president at the Corcoran Group, had the listing.

Rowan, who cofounded Apollo Global Management, bought the Southampton estate for $16.3 million in 2005, public records show. He first listed it in late 2008, although he took it on and off the market in the intervening years; the last asking price was $34 million, according to StreetEasy. The 9,000-square-foot home, situated on a 2.3-acre oceanfront parcel, has floating staircases and panoramic ocean views, according to the listing. The buyer was reportedly fellow financier Carlos Alejandro Pérez Dávila, a managing director of investment advisory firm Quadrant Capital Advisors.

2. $28 million: 174 Further Lane (East Hampton)

174 Further Lane in East Hampton and Corcoran’s Tim Davis

Listed with Corcoran’s Tim Davis, this seven-bedroom contemporary mansion sold for $28 million in March. It originally went on the market in 2011 for $38 million.

Davis declined to identify the seller or buyer, other than to say that they both work in finance.

According to public records, the seller bought the property for $9.85 million in 2004, then enlisted New York design firm Fox-Nahem Associates to renovate and enlarge the home, bringing it up to 7,500 square feet. The buyer purchased the 3.5-acre estate while the renovation was still in progress, said Davis, who represented both parties.

“This person came along and said, ‘I’ll take it right now from you,’” he said. “There are so few oceanfront properties that ever come on the market for sale in East Hampton.”

3. $27.5 million: 43 Surfside Drive (Bridgehampton)

43 Surfside Drive in Bridgehampton and Saunders & Associates broker Terry Cohen

Divorce lawyer Irving Shafran, his wife, book editor Judith Shafran, and their daughter, restaurateur Pamela Schein, quietly began shopping their vacation home at 43 Surfside Drive in March, with the aid of Saunders & Associates broker Terry Cohen, according to the firm’s founder, Andrew Saunders.

Despite the hush-hush listing, the 11-bedroom residence sold for $27.5 million three weeks later, making it the third-most-expensive trade of 2012 so far, public records show. The buyer was an anonymous LLC.

The Shafrans bought the oceanfront Bridgehampton estate for $13.8 million in 2005, according to public records. In another one of the biggest deals of 2012 (see No. 10), Schein purchased a home down the road.

4. $24 million: 171 Great Plains Road (Southampton)

171 Great Plains Road and John Pickett, Jr.

The so-called “Beechwood” estate in Southampton sold for $24 million in March —another coup for Corcoran’s Tim Davis, who had the exclusive.

Sellers Robin and John Pickett, Jr. — the latter best known for owning the New York Islanders NHL team in the 1980s and 1990s — spent three years constructing the house.

The home is a 17,000-square-foot, nine-bedroom, 11.5-bathroom mansion. It was intended to host the whole Pickett brood, but proved too large when one of their children moved to the West Coast and another bought his own Hamptons abode. “It didn’t make any sense to own a house of this size,” Davis said. So the couple purchased a smaller home nearby, and Beechwood was listed for $38 million.

The purchaser works at Deutsche Bank, according to Davis.

5. $20 million: 89 Lily Pond Lane (East Hampton)

89 Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton

Westchester office developer Lowell Schulman sold his eight-bedroom vacation home at 89 Lily Pond Lane in February for $20 million.

To sell the property, he hired his daughter, Ami Schulman, of Manhattan-based brokerage William B. May.

The 9,000-square-foot mansion dates back to 1912, when the well-known New York City surgeon John Erdmann used it as a vacation home, the listing said. Its grounds feature English-style gardens and two guest cottages.

Of the buyer, listed as a Boulder, Colo.–based entity, Ami Schulman would only say they were “a well-known person.”

6. $18.5 million: 329 Highland Terrace (Bridgehampton)

329 Highland Terrace in Bridgehampton

In May, an anonymous buyer purchased a Bridgehampton spec home known as the Edgefield estate for $18.5 million.

James Michael Howard, an interior-design firm based in Atlanta, Ga., and Jacksonville, Fla., built the 11,000-square-foot house, putting it on the market for $19.75 million in June 2011 while it was still under construction. Corcoran’s Gary DePersia and Brown Harris Stevens’ Martha Gunderson had the co-exclusive.

The house, situated on 2.6 acres, has seven bedrooms, two staff suites, a wine cellar and exercise and massage rooms, the listing said.

7. $17.6 million: 1360 Meadow Lane (Southampton)

1360 Meadow Lane in Southampton

Seller Judy Rosenberg’s six-bedroom, six-bathroom contemporary house traded in May for $17.6 million.

It was listed for $24.5 million in early 2011 and sold in May to an entity called Sheshin LLC.

The home is the third listing from Corcoran’s Davis to appear in the top 10, although this one was a co-exclusive with fellow power broker Harald Grant, a senior vice president at Sotheby’s International Realty (see Closing interview).

The residence, designed in the 1970s by the late architect Ward Bennett, overlooks acres of dunes and the ocean, Davis said.

8. $15.1 million: 200 Bay Lane (Water Mill)

200 Bay Lane in Water Mill

This $15.1 million Water Mill sale closed in April. The listing was a co-exclusive between Sotheby’s Grant and Corcoran brokers Susan Breitenbach and Peter Huffine.

The seller, an LLC, first listed the property for $21.5 million in 2009, but the final asking price was closer to $18 million, according to PropertyShark. The buyer was an entity called One Nineteen LLC.

Pop star Jennifer Lopez reportedly checked out the property, but was not the buyer. The eight-bedroom mansion sits on a two-acre parcel that tapers into Mecox Bay.

9. $13.75 million: 186 Crescent Avenue (Water Mill)

186 Crescent Avenue in Water Mill

Also on Mecox Bay, this property sold for $13.75 million in January. The buyer was an entity based in Valhalla, N.Y, called River Rock Structured Capital LLC.

The four-bedroom house belonged to John Sargent, the former president of Doubleday & Co., who died this past February at the age of 87.

Sargent put the home on the market before he died, listing it for an ambitious $40 million in July 2010 with Corcoran’s Jason Schommer. Several dramatic price cuts, the most recent of which slashed $6 million off the ask, brought the price tag just below $20 million, according to StreetEasy. In the end, the sale was a “direct deal” without brokers, a Corcoran spokesperson said.

10. $13 million: 95 Surfside Drive (Bridgehampton)

95 Surfside Drive in Bridgehampton

This Bridgehampton home is nicknamed “Windmill house,” for the prominent windmill in the driveway.

Pamela Schein, who is married to celebrity chef Marc Murphy, paid $13 million for the estate in April, records show. The seller was Elliman agent Allison Diana, who marketed the house with Vincent Horcasitas, a former Elliman agent now at Saunders. Diana did not respond to calls for comment.

The home, which has 140 feet of ocean frontage, was rented by the Clintons for a month in 2010. Diana put it up for sale in 2009, asking almost $15 million, and increased the price in 2011 to about $17 million, according to StreetEasy. At press time, it was available as a rental, asking $180,000 through Labor Day.