December 31, 2004
Sale of Estate in Hamptons Raises Bar to $45 Million
By PATRICK O'GILFOIL HEALY
Ocean views, private beaches and 14 bathrooms are fine for some people, but what good is a house in the Hamptons if it doesn't come with a superlative?
Stewart Rahr, a pharmaceutical distributor, got one this week when he paid more than $45 million for an 18,000-square-foot waterfront estate in Wainscott, part of East Hampton. Real estate brokers in the Hamptons and Manhattan called it the most expensive home ever sold in New York State.
The sale eclipses Rupert Murdoch's purchase this month of a $44 million penthouse on Fifth Avenue once owned by Laurance S. Rockefeller, who died in July.
Mr. Rahr said he had simply fallen in love with the place. "I had no intention of competing in a price war or setting a record," Mr. Rahr said in a telephone interview from Florida. "I just found that out today."
The estate, named Burnt Point, comes with a private dock and a sailboat. It sits on 25 acres, has a half-mile of waterfront, and overlooks Georgica Pond, a jackknife-shaped body of water whose shores are home to Calvin Klein, Steven Spielberg and flocks of endangered birds. ...
Mr. Rahr, 58, said he had not even been looking to buy another home. He recently bought a $13 million apartment in the refinished Hotel Delmonico, now the Trump Park Avenue, at 59th Street, and has a home in Sagaponack, part of Southampton. ... He said he had not decided whether he would sell the Sagaponack home.
Mr. Rahr is president and chief executive of Kinray, a drug wholesaler, which is based in Queens and distributes vitamins, medical supplies and generic and brand-name drugs to pharmacies across the Northeast. Mr. Rahr took over from his father in the 1970's and expanded the family-owned company, which now does $3 billion in sales a year.
He bought the house from David Campbell, a commodities trader who built and decorated the house about five years ago. The furnishings are included in the deal. And the best part?
"I don't even have a mortgage on that property," Mr. Rahr said. "I'm able to write a check."
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/31/nyregion/31mansion.html>
Carl