Each season, 27 East — the main thoroughfare across the Hamptons — slows to a standstill. But savvy and well-heeled residents are finding ways to beat the traffic, buying in neighborhoods that are a quicker trip from the city — whether by car, plane or helicopter.
Brokers say that sales in the most westerly Hamptons — a shorter drive from New York — have never been hotter. Areas west of the Shinnecock Canal (including Hampton Bays, Quogue and Westhampton) were once overlooked by posh shoppers but are now in demand. The $17.4 million listing price for 59 Dune Road, for example, would have been unthinkably ambitious in years past. But now the eight-bedroom, eight-bathroom mansion in East Quogue — boasting a gourmet kitchen, theater, wine cellar, pool, spa, outdoor kitchen and 113 feet of private beachfront — is competitively priced. And the fact that it’s just a two-hour drive from the city is a prime motivator for buyers. “East of the canal used to be considered the cool part of the Hamptons,” says Enzo Morabito of Douglas Elliman, who is marketing the property. “Now, once you cross [east of] the canal, you are just sitting in traffic and it becomes very, very annoying.”
For buyers who prefer to take wing, 1400 Meadow Lane, on Southampton’s most moneyed strip, is just a skip from the Southampton Heliport. The new-construction modernist mansion may be asking $53.9 million, but it affords buyers the ultimate luxury: a roughly 30-minute door-to-door chopper flight from the city. (It also comes with nine bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, 10,927 square feet of living space overlooking the ocean, a tennis court, a theater, a wine cellar and an oversize garage — but it’s the commute that really counts.)
Or for those alighting via private plane, the 18,000-square-foot estate at 38 Mathews Road (asking $59 million) is just a six-minute drive from the East Hampton airport landing strip — far enough away to escape the noise of incoming aircraft and close enough to avoid road rage. Designed by architect Francis Fleetwood, the eight-bedroom, two-elevator house sits on a 25-acre private peninsula on Georgica Pond. Ready for takeoff.
