By a pretty significant margin, the winner this week in the highest priced home sale category was 36 Ambleside Lane in Bridgehampton. The property, south of the highway and just a shade under 3 acres, sold to the tune of $12.5 million.
The home itself is 5,800 square feet and has a private dock on Sam’s Creek. There are 5 bedrooms and 4.5 baths. Special features include a soaring columned foyer to greet visitors, eat-in kitchen with a central island, formal dining room, master suite with sitting area, and a patio overlooking the lawn and water. On the grounds are a heated swimming pool and spa, a vine-covered pergola, and a sunken tennis court.
But as is often the case, there is a personal story behind the property. The purchasers were Lisa and Leland Greenberg. When the two married in 1984, the ceremony was performed by the Reverend Eugene Carson Blake, a former general secretary of the World Council of Churches in Geneva and husband of the bride’s grandmother. Leland Greenberg has been a television executive and had a hand in the production of “The Call,” a suspense movie starring Halle Berry released several years ago.
And there is more. Ms. Greenberg is a fashion stylist, and her stepmother is Sandra Schifter, who with her husband, Melvin, founded the travel retail company LeSportsac in 1974. It introduced a collection of fold-in-a-pouch ripstop parachute nylon bags and luggage. The company took off, and in 1990, the Schifters retired, turning day-to-day operations over to the next generation and focusing on philanthropic activities. In 2005, LeSportsac was sold to the Accessory Network Group, which in turn, in 2011, was bought by the Itochu Corporation. LeSporsac products are now sold in more than 60 countries, 15 years after the company opened its first flagship shop in the U.S., on Madison Avenue in Manhattan.
What, you may ask, was last week’s second-largest sale? The runner-up position belongs to a property in Bridgehampton, the one at 390 Dune Road. It was picked up by Rollingwood Real Estate for just more than $9 million. And a third-place certificate goes to 104 Halsey Lane in Water Mill, purchased by Adam and Peggy Shafiroff for $5.7 million. The house there may not have a view of the mighty Atlantic, but it does have a generous 8 bedrooms and 7 baths and 6,700 square feet of living space, and a pool and spa outside. Who needs the ocean?