The Wall Street Journal: July 2017
New York Developer Rescues a 17th Century Hamptons Farmhouse
Written by Josh Barbanel
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A farmhouse that dates to the 17th century is being saved from demolition in a tony Bridgehampton neighborhood sprouting new $8 million mansions with pools and tennis courts.
The house is being prepped to be lifted and moved to a nearby horse farm next month—not by preservationists but by David Walentas, a New York City real-estate developer who once owned it.
The weekend house where he lived for many years, a desire to “do the right thing” and a chance to add a little extra curb appeal to the remaining 65 acres of a horse farm and polo center he built on a former potato farm in the 1990s.
Mr. Walentas has put the horse farm, which can’t be developed, on the market for $17.995 million.
The house, a sagging sliver of history, has been significantly altered, though it still has its original foundation of locust-timber posts and exposed ceiling joists.
“There was certainly no reason to tear it down. It is part of the history of Bridgehampton,” Mr. Walentas said of the house where he and his wife, Jane, lived for well over a decade. (He now has a modernist beach house on Meadow Lane in Southampton.) “We love old houses. It was the right thing to do,” he said.
The residence, known as the “Haines House,” dates to 1679, when this section of the Hamptons was first divided into 40 acre lots and settled by colonists, according to a 1916 history of Bridgehampton by James Truslow Adams.
A newly poured foundation where the 1679 farmhouse will be relocated on Two Trees Farm in the Hamptons, which is owned by New York real-estate developer David Walentas.
The Haines family built the house and lived there until the early 20th century. It originally was a one-story house with a pitched roof, and was enlarged a century later when the second story was added.
The house was remodeled several more times, most recently by Mr. Walentas, who redid the interior and added an extension in the rear with a sun room, as well as a pool and tennis court nearby.
Mr. Walentas created an equestrian center, known as Two Trees Farm, in the 1990s, on fields used to grow corn and potatoes. It once extended to at least 114 acres, with two indoor riding arenas, three barns, stalls for about 100 horses, polo fields and a row of eight apartments for staff. For years it was the site of the Mercedes-Benz Polo Challenge, a notable event on the Hamptons social calendar.
In 2008, after a lawsuit against the town, Mr. Walentas won permission to subdivide the property into 18 residential lots, but only if a lot with the remaining 65-acre section of the farm would be permanently preserved.
Eventually, after listing the entire farm including house lots for as much as $95 million, Mr. Walentas began selling off residential lots and building houses a few years ago.
One,11,430 square-foot house with six bedrooms sold for $8 million in late 2015, according to Christopher Burnside, a broker at Brown Harris Steven who has the listings. The property has a sunken tennis court and a salt-water pool, and looks out on the green fields of the farm.
Mr. Burnside said the price was far above what similar homes were selling for “above the highway” in Bridgehampton, north of Route 27 and farther from the beach. So far, all but two houses and two lots have been sold, he said.
Last year, Mr. Burnside sold the lot with the 1679 farmhouse to a New York derivatives trader for $3.65 million. The buyer planned to keep the farmhouse but changed his mind after discussing plans with an architect.
Mr. Walentas then sprang into action. He developed a proposal to save the house and move it to a new foundation within the preserved part of the farm.
He said he began the house move before all of the many government approvals were in
place because of pressure from the home’s current owner. “I didn’t ask for permission,” he said. “I will ask for forgiveness.”
The chief building inspector in Southampton, who oversees permitting and zoning issues, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Alex Forden, a development manager for Two Trees who is overseeing the move, said he noted signs of centuries-old fire damage in the house.
When the old farmhouse is moved it will add living space of about 2,000 square feet including five bedrooms to the farm site, though its use would be restricted to the owner and agricultural workers.
“I thought it added value” to the farm, Mr. Walentas said, noting that he didn’t preserve and move the house to make money. “I am rich enough that it doesn’t matter.”
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