Was your last Hamptons rental too close to the beach? Too far from the Long Island Rail Road tracks, or close enough thereto but too close to an actual train station? Feature too much natural light? Or too many bathrooms? Was it too little like an airplane hanger? Are you sick of being able to rent nice places out there when you could just own a not-particularly-nice one with frightening-sounding maintenance features? Well, do the U.S. Marshals ever have a place for you:
Built in 2010, it was designed by architect Maziar Behrooz and is one of the more unusual homes in the Hamptons, a summer community and financial industry vacationland brimming with traditional New England-style shingled houses. Inspired by an airplane hangar, part of the four-bedroom, three-bath house is subterranean, according to a 2011 Wall Street Journal tour of the property….
Enzo Morabito, top broker in the Hamptons for Douglas Elliman, said he would price the property at $3.2 million, which accounts for some of its shortcomings, such as proximity to railroad tracks.
The involvement of the U.S. government, as well as Meli’s business dealings, shouldn’t impact the sale, he said, characterizing the property as a fascinating, engineering feat. “Whoever is going to buy it is going to have to be very, very unique. Hopefully he’s not going to jail, too.”
That’s because the last owner was the wife of a guy who’s very much in jail, Joseph Meli, not-so-mastermind of the inevitable “Hamilton” Ponzi scheme to strike musical-history-crazy New York and its hedge-fund community. Meli isn’t using the place, on account of his current residence, the cozy-sounding federal prison in Brooklyn, which is incidentally closer to the water than his former Hamptons bunker, and his wife agreed to give it up on account of its being bought with other people’s money. Who’s interested?
Fraudster’s Infamous East Hampton Hideaway Will Soon Be Listed by DoJ [Bloomberg]