What to Know as Hamptons Summer Season Begins

Memorial Day Weekend means the hot summer season is beginning in the Hamptons. Though the winter and spring are considered quieter months for Long Island’s East End, the luxury enclave’s commercial and residential markets have kept busy.

Storied East Hampton oceanfront estate sells for $72M

In March, a storied East Hampton oceanfront estate at 43 East Dune Lane sold for $72 million, making it the region’s priciest deal of the year.

The sale price was a 40 percent discount from the initial $120 million asking price. The home was listed by Ann Tenenbaum following the death of her husband, private equity pioneer Thomas H. Lee.

The 3.6-acre property includes an 11,000-square-foot main residence built in 1910, featuring 10 bedrooms, 12 baths, a pool and more than 200 feet of ocean frontage.

The buyer has managed to stay off the radar, while the sale price appears to still be the reigning titleholder of most expensive in the Hamptons so far this year.

Tight inventory is rankling the Hamptons’ resi market

The Hamptons’ residential market has sent prices skyward as inventory tightened. Total listings fell 10 percent year-over-year and luxury property listings dropped more than 35 percent in the first quarter.

Low inventory has stifled overall transactions: first-quarter sales were more than 16 percent lower than the decade average, yet prices continue to climb. The median sale price of luxury homes rose 30 percent to $13 million and the overall median sale price increased 18 percent annually to $2.4 million.

The scarcity of prime properties is driven by existing wealthy owners who are not selling because their holding power is strong, with sales typically only occurring due to circumstances like “death, divorce or distress,” though brokers remain optimistic about the Hamptons as a “good refuge” during times of uncertainty.

Runyon Group notches Hamptons sale record

Residential real estate is typically the topic du jour in the Hamptons, but this year has also seen a record deal in the commercial sector.

This month, Los Angeles-based Runyon Group set a Hamptons retail sale record by paying $39 million for two non-adjacent properties in Water Mill.

The properties — Water Mill Square and The Mill — were sold by Vault Development Partners and Ben Rinzler and represent 84 percent of the hamlet’s gross leasing area.

The $39 million purchase surpasses the previous Hamptons retail record of $30 million.

Runyon’s plans are unclear, though the company co-founders did previously appear before the Southampton Town Planning Board to discuss cosmetic changes and shrinking spaces.

Hamptons developer faces wave of default claims

Not every commercial player has had a good offseason in the Hamptons.

In February, Hamptons developer Jeremy Morton was reportedly facing a wave of legal issues, including a lawsuit from U.S. Strategic Capital to foreclose on two East Hampton properties over a personally guaranteed $3.8 million loan default.

Morton’s development firm, Excelsior Development NY, was also hit with a lawsuit and a confession of judgment for defaulting on an additional roughly $200,000 in small business loans, a $330,000 judgment for unpaid building supplies and a nearly $400,000 debt from a cash advance, bringing his personally guaranteed debts in the preceding year to about $5 million.

Amid the mounting debts, however, Morton kept proceeding with his $30 million redevelopment of prime retail properties in Sag Harbor, which he secured funding for with a separate $40 million loan from Mavick Capital last February.