Hedge funder Heath Freeman scooped up a Hamptons stocking-stuffer just in time for Christmas.
Freeman, managing director of New York-based Alden Global Capital, has closed on the Harbor Bistro in East Hampton for $4 million, he confirmed to The Real Deal on Friday.
The 4.3 acre property at 313 Three Mile Harbor Road hit the market for $4.6 million in September.
The waterfront restaurant sits adjacent to the East Hampton Point Resort, which a group of investors led by Freeman acquired for “less than $20 million” in March.
A post on East Hampton Point’s Instagram account Friday promoted a “reimagining” of what it called “the former Harbor Bistro,” set to open this summer.
“The same culinary team that brought you [East Hampton Point restaurants] Si Si and Buongiorno will be overseeing our newest concept,” the post read. “And yes, it will have incredible sunset views!”
Heath Freeman
Freeman co-founded the secretive hedge fund Alden Global Capital with Randall Smith in 2007. The firm, which acquired Tribune Publishing for $630 million earlier this year, has become notorious for buying up hundreds of struggling newspapers and then maximizing profits by aggressively cutting costs and laying off journalists.
Vanity Fair last year described the firm as “the grim reaper of American newspapers.”
Alden most recently made an unsolicited bid to acquire Lee Enterprises, owner of about 90 newspapers across the country, but Lee’s board is resisting the attempted takeover.
Freeman’s latest real estate deal comes three months after he purchased a 9,700-square-foot waterfront mansion in Miami’s Camp Biscayne gated community for $19 million.
Read more
Tri-State
"Hedge fund vampire" sinks teeth into East Hampton Point resort
Residential
South Florida
“Hedge fund vampire” bites into waterfront Coconut Grove mansion for $19M