There goes the neighborhood
by digby
The nouveau riche have invaded The Hamptons … and the old money is mortified:
But there is no surer sign that the big-spending ways that characterized the pre-financial crisis era have returned to the Hamptons than the blue “Farrell Building” signs multiplying across the pristine landscape here, along with the multimillion-dollar houses they advertise. It is a process some are calling “Farrellization,” and not necessarily happily.
“We’re as busy as we’ve ever been,” said Joe Farrell, the president of Farrell Building, during a recent interview and tour of his $43 million, 17,000-square-foot home here. The estate, called the Sandcastle, features two bowling lanes, a skate ramp, onyx window frames and, just for fun, an A.T.M. regularly restocked with $20,000 in $10 bills.
To spend a day with Mr. Farrell — a local version of Donald Trump, without the history of debt, the lush hair or the insults — is to see just how fully the Hamptons have rebounded, along with the confidence, and the bonuses, of their wealthier summer visitors.
With a customer base composed largely of Wall Street financiers, Mr. Farrell has more than 20 new homes under construction, or slated for construction, at a time, making him the biggest builder here by far. He has plans for more, many of them speculative homes built before they have buyers.
He said the going rate to rent his own home was around $500,000 for just two weeks; last year’s tenants were Jay-Z and Beyoncé. He also helped arrange a $900,000 summer rental for the hedge fund manager Marc Leder, who has since drawn scrutiny from Southampton authorities — and gossip writers — for boisterous parties that draw an endless stream of black S.U.V.’s.
[…]
“I’m concerned that the Farrellization of the Hamptons and the suburbanization of the Hamptons are linked,” said Donna Paul, a Sag Harbor resident and owner of Designer Previews, a company that matches architects and designers with clients seeking to build custom homes. “These are houses being punched out in record time, and that will make the tone and feeling of the Hamptons more generic.”Paul Goldberger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic who has written extensively about the Hamptons, said Mr. Farrell’s company had spawned a host of imitators matching his architectural look, if not his company’s quality. “If I see one more shiny new gambrel roof, shingled house I’ll scream,” Mr. Goldberger said. “It’s become a hopeless cliché, almost a blight.”
Mr. Farrell said he was simply building what his customers wanted: “Someone’s going to build them. I just happen to be building a lot of them, and people are buying them.
“The criticism also comes from people who already have the house, pool and tennis. Why shouldn’t the next generation or the next guy have the house, pool and tennis?”
[…]
In 2010, he started accelerating the construction of speculative homes. But he said it was last year’s budget deal in Washington to avert the so-called fiscal cliff that truly released the reins.“It exploded,” he said. “Everybody said, ‘O.K., we can buy,’ and it just really rocketed this year.”
But most of all, he credits the Federal Reserve for the economic stimulus, which he said has helped the wealthy most of all. “The stock market’s flying through the roof and who’s that helping, the middle class? No, I mean that’s the reality,” he said. “Out here, life goes on.”
God love ’em. They don’t even try to hide it.
But hey, at least this guy really is building something. The rest of these people are living on inheritances and paper profits. Just like the good old days.
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