East Hampton Village Building Sold in Record-Setting Deal

An East Hampton building has been sold for $28 million in what is being called the largest sale within any village business district on the East End.

Hal Zwick and Jeff Sztorc of Compass Commercial represented the buyer and the seller of 66 Newtown Lane in the off-market deal that closed on June 1.

Zwick called it “one of the best-maintained properties on the East End.”

Babette’s had long been considered its anchor. A favorite with Paul McCartney, Steven Spielberg and even President Bill Clinton, who always stopped in when he was in town, the restaurant closed in October of 2021.

Sant Ambroeus, an Italian eatery and coffee bar located with locations in Southampton Village, New York City and Palm Beach, will be opening in Babette’s former location soon.

The 20,000 square feet of space is spread over two floors. It holds nine retailers on the ground level and 12 office suites on the second floor. The 1.126-acre property also boasts a dedicated parking lot in the rear, a rarity for the village commercial property.

“The building was not on the market for sale,” says Zwick. “The buyer asked me to approach the owner and it was kept quiet through closing.”

According to property records, the seller was 66 Newtown Corp, a private family entity, which bought the property in 1997 for $4 million.

The buyer, who we’re told is a low-key investment entity, has not been publicly named yet.

Neither party wanted to speak about the transaction, according to the broker.

In East Hampton Village’s business district, the largest sale was 63 Main Street, a retail storefront, that sold for $12.3 million in 2007.  Last year, Zwick and Sztorc also sold the two-story building at 51 Newtown Lane, with entrances from both Newtown Lane and Reutershan’s parking lot, for $11.5 million, the highest commercial sale in the village in recent years.

The deal will likely top the list for the most expensive commercial real estate trade on the East End in 2022.

In 2021, the biggest commercial real estate deal on the East End was the purchase of the Van de Wetering Greenhouses in Jamesport by a cannabis-growing company Columbia Care. While the deal for the 34-acre facility was worth a reported $42 million, the purchase of 5784 Sound Avenue is being completed in phases. When the first phase finally came through deeds, it was valued at $30 million.

Aside from that outlier trade, the next biggest sale came in at $18.2 million. An entity tied to the Friends of Bay Street, a not-for-profit created to purchase a new home for the Sag Harbor Village-based theater, purchased 2 Main Street, a property known to locals as Fort Apache.