Hamptons brokers up in arms over Zillow listing bugs
Zillow Group and residential brokers throughout the Tri-State area have been at loggerheads for some time. Now the rage from residential agents is emanating from the East End of Long Island, where a back-end listing system launched this week by Zillow has the heads of major brokerages furious about technical snafus that have brought business to a halt. The Real Deal reported Wednesday that Zillow’s Hamptons portal, Out East, which last year replaced the old Hamptons Real Estate Online (HREO), has debuted a back-end listing tool called Out East Agent Tools. In doing so, Zillow disabled RealNet, a database developed by the former owners of HREO that fed Out East, as well as other aggregators like Realtor.com and the New York Times’ listings site. The sudden switch to a new system that brokers use to enter and search listings — RealNet now exists in read-only mode — has unnerved brokerage leaders. Town and Country CEO Judi Desiderio told TRD that “there are all sorts of things that are must-haves that don’t exist in the system and we can’t make this work right now.” [TRD]
Chevy Chase’s old East Hampton home lists for nearly $20M
The onetime East Hampton home of “Caddyshack” star Chevy Chase is back on the market for $19.995 million, Behind the Hedges reported. The home at 19 Lee Avenue was built around 1899 and designed by Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe, the architect behind the iconic Grey Gardens estate in East Hampton that sold for $15.5 million in late 2017. The Lee Avenue home was owned by Chase until 2001, when he sold it for $10 million, according to Behind the Hedges. The home, which hit the market a decade ago seeking $25 million, has 12,000 square feet, 10 bedrooms, eight-and-a-half bathrooms, a wood-paneled living room, a sun room, seven fireplaces and a game room. The more than two-acre property is fully landscaped and has a pool, pool house, garage and a separate play house. The home is called the Frederick Potter House after one of the famous developer’s brothers, who commissioned Thorpe to build it a century ago. Rock star Jon Bon Jovi owns Frederick Potter’s E.C. Potter House nearby on Lily Pond Lane. Peter Turino of Brown Harris Stevens has the listing for the Lee Avenue property. [Behind the Hedges]
‘The Mooch,’ beauty entrepreneur cut prices of East End homes
Three months after putting his Water Mill mansion on the market for $9.75 million, former White House communications director and Opportunity Zone advocate Anthony Scaramucci has trimmed its ask by a mere $255,000, to $9.45 million, according to Behind the Hedges. The outlet noted that the bigger price cut came to 2020 Meadow Lane in Southampton, a more than 8-acre oceanfront estate owned by beauty entrepreneur Adrien Arpel that hit the market last summer seeking $38 million. Arpel’s property, which is listed with the Corcoran Group’s Tim Davis, has since taken a $6 million price cut, to $32 million, as noted by Behind the Hedges. As for Scaramucci’s home at 30 Lawrence Court in Water Mill, which the Harvard Law School graduate bought a little more than a year ago for $7.5 million, Jane Babcock of Brown Harris Stevens and Mark Baron of Saunders & Associates have that listing. [Behind the Hedges]
Montauk’s Surf Lodge to reopen; owner sells Ditch Plains home
Montauk’s Surf Lodge is barred from putting on music performances and selling any alcohol until East Hampton Town officials sign off on new protocols, the Independent reported. Town officials have accused the Surf Lodge of drawing in patrons well in excess of its permitted limit, thereby clogging nearby roads. Acts like Gary Clark Jr., Lauryn Hill, Janelle Monae and Jaden Smith have performed at the Surf Lodge, according to the East Hampton Star. The establishment is currently closed, but its Brazilian owner, Jayma Cardoso, has pledged that it will reopen in time for summer, albeit with some changes. In addition to going dry, the Surf Lodge staff will limit the number of people who can stand on its deck, which has a capacity of 112, but in the past has reportedly drawn crowds of more than 250. The Surf Lodge will also implement a reservation system and install sound barriers to dampen noise. The town also wants Surf Lodge staffers to install a new septic system before it will issue a music permit. Cardoso has agreed to pay a $55,000 to the liquor authority, but has complained that she and her partners were open to selling the property at 183 Edgemere Street until the town’s actions made a deal difficult. One property that Cardoso has been able to offload is her own home in Ditch Plains, Behind the Hedges reported last week. The five-bedroom abode hit the market in December seeking $1.7 million. Dylan Eckhardt of Nest Seekers International had the listing. UPDATE: 4/8/19, 4:45 p.m. EDT. A spokesman for the Surf Lodge told The Real Deal that it has now secured all necessary approvals from East Hampton officials for live music. The Surf Lodge’s owner, Cardoso, is also in contract for a new East End home. [The Independent]
East Hampton to probe settlement with Duryea’s owner
The East Hampton Town Board hired Steven Stern of Long Island law firm Stern Sokoloff to investigate a settlement between the Town Attorney’s office and Marc Rowan, the billionaire owner of outdoor dining and lobster takeout hotspot Duryea’s in Montauk, the Independent reported. Rowan, a co-founder of buyout giant Apollo Global Management, bought Duryea’s in 2014 and then tried to get town approval for a new restaurant on the site. East Hampton officials opposed the plan, so Rowan withdrew his application and took the town to court over zoning issues. The town’s soon-to-be-former attorney, Michael Sendlenski, then agreed to a settlement with Rowan. The deal allowed Rowan to run an eatery on the site at 65 Tuthill Road without calling it a restaurant as officials promised to “expedite” a new plan for Duryea’s. The settlement, however, “drew a firestorm of criticism” from local officials and residents alike, according to the Independent. Neighbors have complained that Duryea’s has changed from a serve-yourself lobster shop to a destination that draws hordes of visitors that clog roads around the establishment. East Hampton will spend $20,000 on Stern’s investigation and the town’s board has hired another lawyer, David Arnsten of Smithtown’s Devitt Spellman Barrett, to advise it on how to proceed. In the meantime, Rowan, a controversial figure on the East End who is known for his high-profile real estate investments, is looking to renovate a cottage on the site and install a new septic system to handle his more polished interpretation of Duryea’s. Rowan told the Independent that his vision for the property comports with the desires of the local community. [The Independent]
Brooklyn company opens ‘glamping’ site in East Hampton
Terra Glamping plans to bring its first luxury camping site to Cedar Point County Park in East Hampton by Memorial Day, Newsday reported. The so-called event rental company, which is based in Brooklyn, has run similar seasonal hotels in the Catskills and the Rockaways. Terra Glamping’s East End site will have 30 safari-style tents looking out over Gardiners Bay to Shelter Island and Sag Harbor. Each tent has a queen-size, memory-foam mattress and down bedding along with a six-foot-wide wooden platform at its entrance, as noted by Forbes and other outlets in stories about the “glamping” phenomenon. Amenities include lounge tents holding sofas, books and board games; a dining tent; bathrooms; a grilling area; a fire pit; and hammocks. Stays at Terra Glamping’s Hamptons locale begin on May 24 and are available through the end of October. [Newsday]
Sag Harbor home sells for nearly $3M below initial ask
Three homes in Sag Harbor recently changed hands with price tags totaling $19.1 million, 27east reported. The priciest of them, 37 Noyac Bay Avenue, sold for $8.5 million, a drop from the nearly $12 million it sought after coming on the market in nearly 2017. The 4,485-square-foot home sits on an acre with 200 feet of water frontage on the bay its street is named after. The home has four bedrooms, five bathrooms, bluestone patios and a waterside pool. The property, listed by Christopher Covert of Saunders & Associates, has manicured lawns and specimen trees along with a stairs leading down to a private beach where owners can tie up their boat. The buyer’s identity is shielded by a limited liability company. Nearby, Wilson and Kathryn Huberty bought the Captain Osborne Edwards House earlier this year $6.5 million in a sale brokered by the Corcoran Group’s Susan Breitenbach. Built in 1854, the 5,200-square-foot renovated home at 27 Suffolk Street has six bedrooms, six bathrooms, three floors, six fireplaces, antique pine floors, a saltwater pool and an entertainment pavilion. The home was completely redone by designer Steven Gambrel of Timeless Homes, who updated it with modern conveniences. Lastly, the historic 5,140-square-foot L’Hommedieu House at 258 Main Street, which went to contract late last year after listing for almost $6 million in May 2018, ultimately sold for $4.1 million. Sotheby’s International Realty’s Christina Galesi had the listing. [27east]