September 2007

REAL ESTATE

INSIDE STORIES BEHIND AREA REAL ESTATE DEALS

Divide and Conquer
Land baron hopefuls have a chance to shell out for an unusual 41-acre estate—a former corn and potato farm—that has just come on the market in Sagaponack, about a quarter mile from the beach. Daniel Hedges LLC, the Daniel Lane and Hedges Lane 41-acre subdivision, has just been listed by Paul Brennan and Neil Bersin of Prudential Douglas Elliman. Alan Schnurman, a 62-year-old personal injury lawyer and real estate investor, bought the property two years ago for $25 million in a deal brokered by Bersin. He is now selling it for $64.5 million. The eight lots range from 107,000 to 64,000 square feet. One could buy the whole thing and put up a massive estate that would almost rival that of Ira Rennert's nearby complex on 60 oceanfront acres. —J.G.K.

High End, Low Profile
Hedge fund money has fueled a Wall Street blitzkrieg of the East End. With military-like stealth, hedgies purchased an onslaught of mansions using LLC companies that were supposed to leave not a trace. "Virtually every high-end buyer is doing this now," says Brown Harris Stevens manager Peter Turino. "There are no tax advantages, but it eliminates much of the unwanted visibility."

Lawyer-to-the-hedgies Leonard Ackerman adds that LLCs also help families interested in succession issues and limited liability the way older families like the Rockefellers historically used trusts in the 1920s and 1930s.

"It's not that complicated, though it is hard to figure out," Ackerman says. Still, this is the Hamptons—playground of the rich (active and idle), as well as the merely curious.