Attention, all realtors! Just when you thought the pie couldn’t have any more slices, Allan Schneider is opening an office in Hampton Bays. That west of the canal market must be hot. Rumor has it that Tom Mango, Schneider’s Westhampton Beach office manager, will run the Hampton Bays realty as well. No call returned by Mr. Mango, so for now we will stick to the rumor!A rare bird, Allan Schneider Associates—a large East End real estate office that did not go New York corporate. (Just East End cor-porate!) In another column, we will discuss just what going corporate means for East End real estate and realtors. You’d be surprised! I was. Other than the lasting power of the “casino,” what else do these big guys bring to the Out East table? And are the agents having more fun? (Watch for musical chairs, and remember you read it here first!)And not just Allan Schneider Associates. Veteran broker Bob Scribner, once part of the Prudential giant in Westhampton Beach, not only left Prudential to go on his own but is now opening five more offices on the East End: Water Mill, Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor, Southold and East Hampton. Wow, and good luck!And still another rare bird: An East Hampton raw land deal just closed, 17 acres waiting to be, of all things, subdivid-ed. The question is, will it be under the old zoning or new Comprehensive Plan Update upzon-ings? We will watch this for you.Nothing to do with real estate, but everything to do with those who knew him, Bridgehampton’s fire commis-sioner, Jim McCaffrey—clearly one of our finest kind—passed away. A profound loss to the East End com-munity.Pipes Burst, the Bubble Doesn’tBlizzards and frigid property affect both private and municipal real estate. East Hampton Indoor Tennis’s bubble went down (but not out, my friends—it’s back up), and East Hampton Town’s three homes pur-chased recently for affordable hous-ing froze over, bursting the pipes.Though EHIT’s bubble had some temporary problems, here are some reasons why the East End housing bubble hasn’t burst. In general, low mortgage rates still prevail, more people are buying, and the leading edge of baby boomers is now 59 years old. The peak ownership age group is in its 60s, according to Doug Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association. Specifically, the strength of the stock market is still the largest influence, says one vet-eran broker, on purchases of second homes on the East End. We are in demand!Moreover, west continues its drive east with Fortunoff opening in Southampton near the diner, and Ethan Allen is searching for a place to put its upscale furnishings. (What ever happened to Brills and John’s Bargain Store and nobody-knew-we-were-out-here?)We hear from one broker—who wishes to remain nameless, because she is seeking a piece of it—that the Montauk market is soaring. “Can’t find a home there under $500,000,” she tells us. Since Montauk is 37 per-cent water (You knew that, right? Ponds, lakes, bay, ocean, harbor), that tight inventory should make the demand spiral.Prudential Douglas Elliman CEO Dottie Herman picked off another realty big shot when Faith Hope Consolo joined that firm, leaving Garrick-Aug Store Leasing after 20 years. Ms. Consolo will become chair-woman of a new retail sales and leas-ing division for PDE. Her motto, we read, is “You Need Faith.” Seems to us you need Dottie Herman! And—hot off the press—the company is plan-ning to open an office in Quogue. There’s that west of the canal thing again.The Rush for Contemporaries:
History Repeats Tom MacNiven, Corcoran Group exclusive broker for Houses at Sagaponac, tells us four more mul-timillion-dollar homes are sold, and four more are coming on line under construction. “If people want these contemporary style architect-designed homes, they’ll have to buy them under construction,” advises Mr. MacNiven.
It reminds us of the rush in the late 1970s when contemporaries were first introduced to the market in East Hampton’s Northwest area—a region that opened up to developers because the highway bypass went down the drain with new Governor Hugh Carey. Buyers were grabbing products from plans, forget about during construction! We’ll need to talk about this again.Finally, you knew that Village Realty out of East Hampton opened a branch in Westhampton Beach, right? Speaking of Village Realty, what does it, East Hampton Point, the 1770 House, Cittanuova, the Abraham’s Path Golf Course, the new Suffolk County Bank Building on Newtown Lane, the old Parson’s Electric store-fronts on the same street (a most recent acquisition), East Hampton Air, and the helicopter business (whatever that’s called), and prob-ably more, all have in common? East Hampton builder, developer, busi-nessman Ben Krupinski, a local boy from Fireplace. A hands-on kind of guy, you might see him driving his pickup or high on a ladder, ham-mering nails into something. Ben Krupinski, our very own Trump!So! There we are. Full disclosure! Yes, well ... almost. East End real estate remains a very strange busi-ness.
