One trip to the auction block wasn’t enough for an 11-acre East Hampton estate.
Another auction of 90 and 100 Briar Patch Road has been set for June 6, Behind the Hedges reported. The foreclosure sale is the second in two years for the waterfront property, once owned by education entrepreneur Chris Whittle.
(There was also an auction scheduled in 2017 to satisfy a $3.9 million judgment in favor of Dubai-based billionaire Sunny Varkey. It’s unclear what became of it.)
Whittle listed the property in 2014 for $140 million. It is still listed by Bespoke Real Estate, now for $95 million, but there have been no takers at that price either.
Avenues, the exclusive Manhattan school that Whittle helped found, was a success, but the same cannot be said for his purchase of East Hampton real estate. Avenues Global in December 2018 won an $8.7 million judgment against Whittle for his unpaid mortgage, leading to the first auction, which the school won to reclaim its debt.
That was not the end of the road for the Georgica Pond property, though.
Pure East Global Investments had provided a $25.4 million commercial loan to Whittle in 2017. It also extended a $25 million convertible loan to Global Education Investments. When Pure East was not repaid, it was awarded a judgment last August and went after the property.
Interest has piled up on the two loans. A court-appointed referee deemed the amount owed to be a staggering $84.8 million.
The auction of the estate’s two properties seems unlikely to satisfy that judgment. The town’s most recent assessment valued them at $32 million.
The estate includes five structures with 14,000 square feet of living space and 1,200 feet of water frontage. The main 10,000-square-foot home was designed by Arthur Jackson, who designed another famed property in the area, Lasata.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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