Well, well, well. Look who splurged on a giant home in the Hamptons: it’s Manhattan-based hedge fund manager Greg Coffey.
Though the estate was technically acquired by an offshore company based in the Cayman Islands, the Wall Street Journal has disclosed it was the Australian-born trader, nicknamed the Wizard of Oz on Wall Street, who treated himself to the epic Jule Pond estate, which cost him a cool $105 million. The veteran Wall Street wizard can swing it, though; his $4 billion Kirkoswald Asset Management has risen 9% so far this year, after returning a whopping 23% last year.
The sale has broken records as the most expensive single parcel ever sold in the Hamptons. Listing agents were Zach and Cody Vichinsky, and the seller was financier Brenda Earl, a former partner at equity fund Zweig-Dimenna, who paid $21.8 million for the property way back in 2002.
Originally known as Fordune, the estate is legendary in the Hamptons. The Water Mill property boasts 42 acres of prime property and the longest stretch of private oceanfront in the area, nearly a quarter of a mile.
Weighing in at a massive 20,000 square feet, the main house was built by Henry Ford II, grandson of the Ford Motor Company founder, and his erstwhile wife Anne in the late 1950s at a cost of $2.3 million (about $22 million today). Henry and Anne divorced in 1964 and she was subsequently awarded full ownership of the estate, which then encompassed 235 acres. Anne sold the entire property in 1975 to Italian financier Carlo Traglio, who paid the bargain price of $1.8 million, $500,000 less than Ford spent to build the place. Traglio then subdivided the property, keeping the main house and 42 oceanfront acres for himself; he held onto the estate until 2002, when it was acquired by Earl.
The main living spaces include a 48-foot-long living room, family, game and recreation rooms, and a 20’ by 28’ kitchen. There are 12 bedrooms in all, including two master suites, and 12 bathrooms, plus a couple of powder rooms. In addition to the main house, the property features a separate three-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath carriage house, plus a detached six-car garage.
Rolling lawns, mature trees and lush gardens dot the property. There’s a meditation garden with a koi pond and waterfall, while a hedged garden boasts a 60-foot pool, separate spa, outdoor kitchen and outdoor shower. Recreational amenities include tennis and basketball courts; also still on the estate is the original greenhouse. A vast array of meandering pathways wind over the dunes and down to the ocean.
It isn’t too much of a surprise Coffey would spend such an extravagant amount of money on a gargantuan property. Last year he made headlines when he shelled out $53.5 million in an off-market deal for a 16,000-square-foot, six-story townhouse on the Upper East Side. Clearly, he’s a the-bigger-the-better type.
Welcome to the Hamptons, Coffeys. Don’t forget our housewarming invite!
