No kidding: $120K for foot-wide strip of Hamptons

Suffolk County is laughing all the way to the bank after a bidding war between two Manhattan financiers brought $120,000 for a foot-wide strip of land that it only wanted 10 bucks for. Marc Helie of Chevalier Investments and Kyle Cruz of Centerbridge Partners both wanted the land because it would give them exclusive right-of-way to their oceanfront properties in the town of Napeague.

Helie and Cruz each initially bid $1,500 but then kept one-upping the other, raising the price 34 times on the strip, which runs from Montauk Highway to the ocean. Helie eventually prevailed, Newsday reported.

Both Helie and Cruz declined to comment to the newspaper. For Suffolk County, the sale is a record-setter.

“We’ve had one or two pieces start off at $400 and maybe go to $10,000, but never like this,” property manager Wayne Thompson said. “But you know what water’s worth . . . You can say, ‘Oh, yes, I have a right-of-way to the water.’ ” [Newsday]  – Hiten Samtani