You’ve read here before that sometimes the people behind the property are more interesting than the property. Case in point: 104 Egypt Lane in East Hampton, which last week was reported to have been sold for $5.6 million.
Not that this particular property is boring. Built in 1912 and only a 7-iron from the Maidstone Club south of the highway (and close to the popular duck pond), the 3,500-square-foot dwelling on 0.56 acre has 5 bedrooms and 4 baths, and the renovated kitchen includes a butler’s pantry. The nicely landscaped backyard includes an in-ground pool, and there is a large detached garage. When the property first went on the market, the ask was $6.2 million.
The seller is Perry Steiner, who the Washington Post described in a 2013 article as a “private equity bigwig.” The purchasers of 104 Egypt Lane are Donald Handelman and Nedenia Rumbough. Mr. Handelman is no slouch in the financial world either. He has been a member of the Meyer Handelman Company since 1951. It is an investment advising firm in New York with $2.1 billion in assets. Ms. Rumbough is a retired public relations director in the United States for Holland & Holland, a London-based maker of sporting guns.
It gets more interesting as we look at other generations of the family. Two years ago this month, Ms. Rumbough’s daughter, Nedenia Craig, was married, and it was reported then that she is the granddaughter of Dina Merrill, the actress and philanthropist who until her death at 93 last May was a longtime resident of the Hamptons. The bride is also a great-granddaughter of the heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, whose father, C.W. Post, was a founder of the General Foods conglomerate. She is also a great-granddaughter of Edward Francis Hutton, who co-founded the Wall Street firm E.F. Hutton.
We can assume the bride and groom have had no trouble getting investment advice the last couple of years.