Irena Medavoy, wife of the Hollywood mogul Mike Medavoy, was quoted recently in the New York Times Style Section as saying: “There is nothing that compares to this in the world. It would be like the Hamptons gated.”
She was referring to North Beverly Park, a very posh and expensive gated community in Los Angeles, where house sizes range from impressively big to stupendously monumental. Ms Medavoy’s, 11,000 square foot “East Coast traditional style home” seems to be on the modest side, in size and taste—but you have to remember her goal was to be “warm, cozy, informal.” It might very well be all of that, at least in comparison to houses there that top out at over 40,000 square feet.
West coast cozy is definitely not a little cottage on a tree-lined lane in Southampton. Joyce Arad, who owns a sprawling three-story reproduction of an eighteenth century French chateau, is quoted as saying, “I wanted it to be homey, and authentic-feeling.”
Houses in North Beverly Park sell for up to $30 million, which is not bad on Hamptons standards. When you think about it, it means you probably get more house for your money there than you do here. But who wants to spend a summer in southern California, even cocooned in air conditioned splendor?
I don’t know Ms. Medavoy (she appears to be blond, beautiful and skilled with quotable lines). She does not know me. I can only guess what her Hamptons connections might be. She is certainly correct in her implication that it is a place where people want to be, but we are not a Long Island spin on North Beverly Park.
The Hamptons I think are a bit more democratic and heterogeneous than Beverly Park, although it is not the world we had even twenty years when your plumber’s sons or daughters could expect to buy a house near their parents. And that disparity is not just demographics. We are losing vital elements that constitute a community. On the other hand, your plumber might very well be making more money these days than you are. I’m pretty sure mine is outpacing me.
We certainly have a breathtaking number of billionaires, zillionaires and just ordinary hyper-rich people, but nevertheless we are not an exclusive enclave of wealth. There are enough people not yet in the financial stratosphere to pull down the average.
While two million dollars is just above entry level in the house market here these days, that is not awfully out of line with other important real estate markets in the country. Just think of Aspen, Jackson Hole, and Greenwich.
We’re expensive on many standards, but we are definitely not a gated community sort of place. For one thing, actual gated communities have not caught on in the Hamptons. Our zoning discourages and in some cases prohibits it. And I think our attitude does too. Plus we do not have big tracts of land in prime neighborhoods to create places like Beverly Park.
To me, gated communities seem nouveau-ish, smack of development type real estate, and with exceptions like Beverly Park, they are not that desirable. We’ve never had a tradition for them in the Northeast. I associate them with the Sunbelt, with big, upper-mid level condominium and single family development, with golf courses, clubhouses and planned activities. And I don’t mean the kinds of plans we make to try to get to all the parties every weekend.
Ms. Medavoy’s idea of a gated Hamptons, while a startling thought at first, is not inconceivable. You have to give her credit for pragmatic thinking. The idea is both more credible and more workable than it first appears, and would in fact be quite easy to implement.
All it takes is a single gate at the bridge across the Shinnecock Canal. It’s a logical place to vet all vehicles, and create an exclusive gated Hamptons (at least from Shinnecock Hills east), up to Ms. Medavoy’s standards.
Attendants at the canal gate could call you, say in Amagansett, and warn that a car full of houseguests with a lot of Sherry-Lehmann coolers will be crawling along Route 27 to your house. You, safely, securely, and comfortably behind the gate, would have plenty of time to make room in the fridge to chill the white wine.