Is David Geffen Adding Real Estate Tycoon To Movie Mogul Title?

Having found great success as a music then a movie mogul, is David Geffen toying with becoming a real estate tycoon in the Hamptons?

Three weeks ago, The Press reported the purchase of 199 Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton for $70 million. The seller was the estate of Josephine Chaus, who had built a line of clothing for professional women into a successful company. During a time when few major companies had a female CEO, Ms. Chaus was a pioneer. Her company at its height of success had 200 employees and annual sales of $300 million. She died of cancer last November, and her sons put the oceanfront property on the market. This week, it was revealed that the buyer, listed rather unimaginatively as 199 Lily Pond Lane LLC, was Mr. Geffen.

The $70 million purchase price is not at the top of the list of recent Hamptons transactions—for example, it pales in comparison to the $110 million now padding the pockets of hedge fund impresario Scott Bommer for selling three Lily Pond properties earlier this year—and it is a drop in the bucket for what Mr. Geffen has been spending on real estate. According to Forbes Magazine, “Geffen’s American residences (on land and at sea) are worth some $1.1 billion.” (His “navy” includes the world’s 10th-largest yacht, the 454-foot Rising Sun, which can accommodate 18 people, and a staff of 55, and even has a basketball court.) For many years he had been active on the West Coast, owning properties in Malibu and Beverly Hills. In the latter locale, the co-founder of the Dreamworks movie studio owns an estate initially built by Jack Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers. It features another connection to a Josephine—the floor the French emperor Napoleon stood on when he proposed to the future empress. Forbes lists Mr. Geffen’s fortune at $6.5 billion.

As the New York Times reported in “The Boy From Brooklyn,” an article published in February, nowadays Mr. Geffen is concentrating on the New York area, ridding himself of most of his California holdings. His main residence is a 20-room penthouse on Fifth Avenue, which he purchased for $54 million, and he has a townhouse on East 73rd Street. Two years ago, Mr. Geffen, for $50 million, bought the 7,500-square-foot, seven-bedroom home on 5.5 acres owned by Courtney Sale Ross. It sits on Georgica Pond next door to a fellow Dreamworks co-founder, Stephen Spielberg.

And now comes the Lily Pond pick-up for $70 million, which provides 2.04 acres on the Atlantic. It has been reported that Mr. Geffen has sold the former Ross residence for about what he paid for it. If by chance the new owner is hydrophobic, that could save East Hampton some water—records reveal that at 4.5 million gallons, the Geffen manse on West End Road was the town’s number one user of water from March to September of last year. But with the former Ross property off his plate, with Napoleon-like restlessness, the aspiring Hamptons real estate mogul could soon be scouting for his next conquest.