Natural gas mogul unloads Bridgehampton beach house

Three years after putting down $110 million for a 6.5-acre estate in East Hampton, natural gas tycoon Michael Smith has agreed to sell a smaller beachfront compound in Bridgehampton for close to its $42.5 million asking price, the New York Post reported. Smith’s 1.42-acre beachfront plot at 263 Surfside Avenue hit the market in early 2018 before having its listing removed in March, according to property records. The off-market deal for the 7,360-square-foot home, built in 2011 and designed by Barnes Coy Architects, was brokered by Eileen O’Neill of Douglas Elliman and Ryan Serhant of Nest Seekers International. The modern home, which has views of the Atlantic Ocean and Sag Pond, has seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms and an outdoor living space with an infinity pool, pool house, kitchen, pizza oven and roof deck. The Real Deal reported last year on Smith and his wife, Iris, paying another $110 million to acquire the Malibu beachfront home of Hard Rock Cafe founder Peter Morton. The $110 million paid by Smith, chairman and CEO of Freeport LNG Development, in 2016 for three separate properties on East Hampton’s Lily Pond Lane trailed only hedge fund honcho Barry Rosenstein’s $147 million purchase in the town in 2014 as the largest-ever on the East End. [NYP] — Brian Baxter