Extreme Hamptons – too much??
Bridgehampton, New York, New York!!!
Price Guide: $59.5 Million
Not sure it’s still for sale, but I’m just saying…
before he started work on the largest project he has ever undertaken,
his new 30,000 square-foot home on Halsey Lane in Bridgehampton. The
house is for sale for $59.5 million but Farrell is not really interested
in moving out just yet.
complete with a DJ booth, a karaoke stage and a dressing room. You can
also climb a rock wall in the basement inching your way up one hand and
one foot at a time until you reach the ceiling complete with a specially
designed padded floor to cushion your fall should you miss one of the
protruding ledges on your way up or way down.
The amiable builder adheres to a ‘life is too short’ philosophy that
is reflected in his no expense spared approach to home construction.
You
can play a few rounds of virtual golf and skate board on a specially
designed indoor half pipe. After that you can relax in a massage room,
soak in a hot tub or hit the Jacuzzi and sauna after you work out in the
gym. No expense has been spared in creating this full home spa that
rivals many professional operations.
Clearly this is no ordinary house but then Farrell is no ordinary
builder. The house is a real estate broker’s dream as well as a buyer’s
fantasy come true. Brokers often say the best house to buy is the house a
builder builds for himself. That’s when no expense is spared and no
detail is overlooked as the house approaches state-of-the-art
perfection.
of the first floor is the 10-seat mini-movie theater complete with
interactive seats for family members and guest who tire of watching one
of the many flat screen televisions. The walk-in refrigerator makes
large scale entertaining easy.
The detailing is meticulous right down to the decorative moldings
and tile work. The kitchen is to die for even if all you do is boil
water. The pool house befits the 60 by 20 foot heated gunite pool
complete with electric pool cover and underwater stereo system. The set
up gives new meaning to sitting by the pool on hazy summer days when the
ocean is too dangerous and the bay is filled with jellyfish.
The house alas, is no where near the ocean or the bay, a factor that
does not seem to deter Farrell or the enthusiastic brokers who want to
sell this house as the Farrells get comfortable enough to enjoy a July
barbeque or two.
The amiable builder adheres to a ‘life is too short’ philosophy that
is reflected in his no expense spared approach to home construction. “I
hired the guy who programs the planes for the King of Saudi Arabia to
work on the electronic and computer systems in the house,” Farrell
recounted. He also hired an architect who worked on the Ritz Carlton in
Palm Beach to come in and create the spectacular playroom area in the
basement. A 100 man crew worked six days a week for a year-and-a-half to
complete the understated manse that sits on an 11.5 acre flag lot in
agricultural reserve.
said, pointing to the scarcity of land remaining in Bridgehampton where
even small building lots are hard to come by.
Rumors that the Jonas Brothers are renting the house this summer are
not true according to Farrell who notes he turned down a number way
north of $1 million for a summer rental with an option to buy a few
weeks ago. “I don’t need the money, and I just can’t move my family out
for the summer like that,” Farrell said. The house is available for two
weeks of your choice this summer for $495,000.
Gary DePersia of the Corcoran Group
is one of the high powered Hamptons brokers involved in the process of
selling Farrell’s house. He is as enthusiastic about the house as its
builder. “There is nothing like in on the market. It is a beautiful
home.” DePersia said.
The 46-year-old former Wall Streeter who once worked on the
commodities exchange explained he had always wanted to be a builder. “I
couldn’t do it until I was 31. I needed the money to buy land, so I made
a lot of money so I could afford to buy land. Then I started building,
Farrell said. “I love it. I followed my heart.”
Having built his first house in Upper Brookville before entering the
Hamptons market in 1996, Farrell now lives as a year-round resident. “I
don’t like the ocean,” he said, “because I live here all year. The wind
on the beach is bad in the winter.”
described his new home. Completed on May 1, the family moved in shortly
after that. The house went on the market a few weeks later as word
spread among the real estate community. “They all said there was nothing
like this so I put it out there because there was so much interest.”
If you Build It, They Will Buy It
According to Farrell, who is no stranger to the high end of the
market, you must understand the psychology of the rich and the very rich
when you build luxury homes.
“The most important thing to a billionaire is time,” Farrell said.
“The beauty of my house is that they can move right in. It takes four or
five years to build a house like this. These are people who know they
are not going to outlive their money. So if they see something they like
and they want it, they will buy it.”
to store their stash in this house where the open floor plan makes
entertaining easy. Devotes of the Home Shopping Network and other
shoppers will love the package room. This is where the Fed-Ex guy and
the UPS man can drop off packages without entering the house stowing
them safely in a small storage area accessible by its own outside door.
The ultra sophisticated Crestron automation system will shoot you an
email when a package is delivered just so you know what’s going on at
the house while you are out at the beach or in the city.
The 2,800 square foot master suite on the second floor is a perfect
retreat when you tire of the seductively paneled library on the first
floor. You can sit upstairs and watch the impressive train set, the kind
that bedazzles hobbyists who spend hours in their basements playing
with their railroad cars, miniature houses, depots, trees and assorted
street props that populate a miniature city, on television in the living
room if the luxurious basement bores you or you want to join the rest
of the family as they huddle around the fire. Control the lights and
temperature in the house from a computerized touch pad on the walls in
most of the rooms. ( “The house is too big to have to go walking from
room to room to turn off all the lights,” Farrell said.)
“I only work with the best and the smartest brokers,” Farrell said.
He is not worried about selling it. “I wanted to build a beautiful house
for my family. I enjoy the bowling alley. We had eight couples over for
dinner the other night and we went bowling. I love to play squash. I
don’t drink or go to bars. I stay home. These are all the things I
wanted to have in a house.”
Gary DePersia, a superstar broker at the Corcoran Group is
representing the property for Farrell along with a handful of other
brokers selected by Farrell. DePersia is as enthusiatic about the
property as its owner-builder. “There is nothing like this in the
Hamptons,” DePersia said and this high-end broker has seen it all over
the years. “The property is great, and the house has all the amenities
and then some.”
right away and they work for me. I am the fastest payer in the
industry,” Farrell surmised. Normally a house the size and scale of
Farrell’s new digs would take a crew at least three to four years to
complete. “I am a type “A” builder. I get it done,” he said. Farrell
broke ground on Halsey Lane on Nov. 1, 2007.
“I love being a builder,” Farrell, the man who followed his heart to
success, says with contentment. No job is to big or too small for
Farrell Construction which recently completed a 2,400 square-foot house
in Southold. That’s on the North Fork. “I’ll do anything reasonable,”
said the man who loves to build houses. “You get a great sense of
accomplishment when you finish building a house.”
