Sean Avery's Next Chapter: Flipping Homes

From scoring on ice to interning at a magazine, to building and designing homes, Sean Avery is a true jack-of-all-trades. The former NHL player has jumped into the world of real estate—with unique abandon.

This time, he’s teamed up with East End builder Charles Gallanti, whose office is in Wainscott. They met while Mr. Gallanti was working on Mr. Avery’s home in Southampton Village, which he now shares with his fiancée, the model Hilary Rhoda.

The two men hit it off immediately. Besides a similar aesthetic in design, they also have the same taste in music. “If you’re both a ‘Phish head,’ there’s a little bit of trust and bond right from jump street,” said Mr. Gallanti, chuckling.

The duo decided to give home-flipping a try. They’re in negotiations to purchase one house in Amagansett, have started construction on another in Southampton Village, and recently put a third, also in Southampton Village, on the market for $2.99 million. It is this third house, at 52 Prospect Street, that has served as a test drive for the venture.

Following a modernized barn style, the fully renovated four-bedroom, four-bath home sits on 0.2 acre. At 2,800 square feet, it has a finished basement designed as a bedroom with a private bath. The property also includes a pool and pool house, and the price includes all the furnishings. “You just have to bring your toothbrush!” said Mr. Gallanti.

The home’s details mix and match features from contemporary design companies around the country—from “floating” bedside tables that attach to the wall and unique vanities in the bathroom, to waterproof textile flooring in the finished basement. Even the artwork and furniture were carefully selected, the partners said, as they continue to fine-tune their style and create a brand.

“Our aesthetic is here,” said Mr. Avery. “I don’t see us using a lot of different things in the next one, because we’re trying to build our mark, too.”

The former New York Rangers player found most of the décor online, mining the internet. In fact, Mr. Avery said he has always had a penchant for design. During his tenure on the ice, he famously interned at Vogue magazine during hockey’s offseason over the summer.

“The first summer I was going to stay in New York, I didn’t know a ton of people at that point, and I wanted to do something for the summer, and I was just, like, ‘f--- it, I’m going to intern at a magazine.’ I wrote Anna Wintour, and it worked out,” he said, referring to the magazine’s editor-in-chief.

Controversy followed Mr. Avery throughout his ice hockey career, a classic “agitator” on ice who would often say or do something inflammatory that pushed somebody’s buttons—and that behavior carried over to off-ice. Even since he retired in 2012, the bad boy image still shadows him, but he said it can be useful.

“The people that we hire, I want them to do good work for us, and I want to pay them on time,” said Mr. Avery. “When they show up and start a job and then go missing for four days, then I go find the guy … and say, ‘Where are you? Come on, man, just show up to work.’ I’m not crazy, just firm, and the expectations are set.”

He acknowledged that his former temperament has mellowed. “If I acted like I did on the ice when I played in real life, they would’ve thrown me in jail,” he said.

Now, with one house down and another two on the horizon, the new home design team is carefully making its mark in an area where real estate is king—and so far, they’re proud of their creations.

“I think we built a house that makes the Wall Street banker way cooler than he is,” Mr. Avery said. “I think we’ve built a house [that would make] the 40-year-old couple that has two young children very happy, because they’ve got a clean, useful house, something they can bring into their own and give themselves a little identity that’s different from their friends.

“It can kind of take shape for a lot of different people,” he said of their pilot venture.