Pleasant Lane Sale In East Hampton Evokes Less Contentious Politics

During another contentious political year, it might be nice to recall when politics—and politicians—were a bit more bipartisan. The recent closing on a house ($2.1 million) on Pleasant Lane in East Hampton by Amy Bloom offers an opportunity to recall the career of her father, William Simon, who also owned a house in East Hampton, until his death in 2000.

One of Mr. Simon’s achievements was managing in only three years to serve in the cabinets of three different presidents, with two being Republican and the other a Democrat. In May 1974, he was appointed secretary of the treasury by Richard Nixon.

Three months later, Mr. Nixon was out of the White House and Gerald Ford was in, thanks to the Watergate scandal. In January 1977, when President Jimmy Carter took office, he kept Simon on, although he left the cabinet later in the year to re-join the private sector.

He had left it in 1973 to become assistant secretary of the treasury, and during the Arab oil embargo that year, Mr. Simon became head of the new Federal Energy Administration. At the conclusion of his cabinet career, he was presented with the Alexander Hamilton Award.

Back in the private sector in New York, Mr. Simon was a pioneer of the leveraged buyout, which earned him a pretty penny in the 1980s, and he founded William E. Simon & Sons, a global merchant bank. At one point, Forbes magazine estimated his wealth as $300 million. Some of that coin went into philanthropy. The William E. Simon Award for Philanthropic Leadership has been awarded annually since 2001. Possibly in the too-much-information category, a former son-in-law of Mr. Simon is Dana Streep, who has a sister named Meryl.

Easily topping the property sales reported last week was 649 Hedges Lane in Sagaponack, at $14 million. The new, 9,000-square-foot house sits on 1.5 acres and boasts six bedrooms and seven and a half baths. The owner is whoever is behind Big Waves LLC. Coincidentally, down the beach to the west, on Ocean Road in Bridgehampton, a property just sold for $4.5 million and the owner is Wavesong 3 LLC. Falling in between price-wise is an $8.7 million property in North Haven bought by another front, Eleven Mashomack LLC.

If fitness is one of your goals this year, stroll on over to Koala Lane in East Hampton where John and Jill Foley have just bought a place for $2.9 million. Mr. Foley built the Citysearch.com site, became CEO of Evite.com, and was president of Barnesandnoble.com. His latest venture is Peloton, which he launched in New York City in 2014. The company manufactures indoor exercise bikes, and over a dozen retail locations have been opened around the country. During summer in the Hamptons, indoor cycling is a lot safer!

A couple of short notes: Robert and Roseanne Kennedy wrote a $2.03 million check for a manse on Jessups Landing Court in Quogue, and farewell to the writer Robert Sam Anson, who with his wife just sold their Sag Harbor home and have relocated to North Carolina … where they will no doubt find other Hamptons ex-pats.

Would you spend $1 million to rent a house in Southampton this August? If so, look up Louise Blouin on Gin Lane. If you can spend a lot more than that, word is her La Dune compound will go on the market for $145 million.

Where the proceeds of a sale will go is anyone’s guess. As the New York Post reported on Monday, Ms. Blouin is one of hundreds of wealthy investors named in the so-called Panama Papers for “stashing vast sums of money in offshore accounts.” Nicknamed the “Red Queen” because she prefers to dress like the “Alice in Wonderland” character, Ms. Blouin is a publisher of art magazines and an art collector. She is considered one of the wealthiest women in her native Canada.