Real LI

The next Hamptons Cottages and Gardens Idea House will be green, thanks to Peter Sabbeth. He and wife, decorator Melissa Green, own Sag Harbor-based Modern Green Home, which they started almost two years ago, according to an article in the East Hampton Star. The Sagaponack farmhouse was built in 1860, and is being completely renovated with “a very, very modern addition onto the back of it.” The house was once owned by author James Jones, who wrote “From Here to Eternity.” “It’s going to be the first ecologically friendly designer showhouse in the Northeast,” Sabbeth said. When done, the house will be 6,300 square feet, with a 2,700-square-foot finished basement.

The East Hampton Star photo by Carissa Katz

Here it is -- the New American Home 2008. "The sprawling, two-story plantation-style residence in a prestigious Lake Nona, Fla., subdivision has a $4.8-million price tag and, as a featured attraction of the International Builders' Show in Orlando, Fla., pulled in thousands of visitors last week," writes Gary Dymski. The house may be nearly 7,000 square feet (with an additional 2,950 square feet of covered outdoor living space), but it is also totally green. Read all about it here.

Many of the industry pros visiting the IBS event in Orlando believe that the NAHB's new Green Building Program will put added pressure on builders and contractors to perform.

In the past, most new home buyers seemed more concerned with ammenities, such as countertops and flooring, than energy efficiency.

But it's been slowing turning, says John Barrows of J. Barrows Inc., an East Hampton remodeler builder. Barrows, a green-building instructor in Orlando, says more and more new home-buyers are concerned with the energy performance of their home. He says it's about consumers being more educated.

Most contractors seem to believe that as green building becomes the norm, it will be up to them to bear more responsibility. "Our competition is the resale home," says Tony Panza of Turtle Pond Builders, a Southampton custom-home builder. "To beat the competition, we have to offer green and energy efficiency."

Builders who turn out green products will have a distinct advantage, he says. Prospective home buyers will expect new structures to be more eco-friendly, use less energy and be better insulated. Those old standbys, wood floors, vaulted ceilings and custom kitchens, will be secondary

Officials from the National Association of Home Builders, sponsors of the International Builders Show in Orlando, Fla., last week, predicted about a 10 percent drop in attendance from the 2007 event. Apparently, they were pretty accurate. Attendance for the 2007 show was about 104,000; the figure for 2008 dipped to 92,000, a drop of about 12 percent, according to the NAHB.

This is the fourth consecutive year that Orlando's Orange County Convention Center has played host to the International Builders Show. In those four years, the housing market has been sinking, sinking, sinking.

There is an end in sight. At least David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders sees one. The market will continue its slump for most of 2008, Seiders said this week, before starting to emerge in 2009. Long Island builders and remodelers seemed to think along the same lines a few weeks ago, when I spoke to many of them about this year's show and their thoughts on the upcoming year.

There are a couple of bright spots, however. Long Island builders and suppliers say the market for high-end homes, those costing $3 million or more, is steady. One supplier seemed to think high-end homes was keeping the industry going. It seems the wealthy have enough in reserve to be sufficiently shielded from the plunge in the housing market.

Nationally, there have been slight increases in consumer demand for multi-family homes. perhaps for close-knit families, a number of factors play into the statistics. One reason for the upswing, I suspect, is that more young families can't afford a home of their own. So, grandma and grandpa, looking to downsize, simply move in with one of the kids.

They must figure now is a good time to purchase a home and live comfortably together for the next few years. Maybe in that time frame the market will turn for the better or they'll be better able to afford single-family residences.

Either way, some people are building and buying. That's a good sign.

The National Association of Home Builders, sponsors of the annual International Builders Show, arrange several daily press conferences, and the biggest turnout so far was a few minutes ago to announce the launch of the National Green Building Program.

No big deal. Everyone knows today is Green Day at the show in Orlando (where it's sunny but cool).

The talk among industry pros down here is all about the dip in the industry. There are stories of foreclosures and bankruptcy, and it can be a bit depressing. No state has been hit harder recently by the sluggish ecomony than Michigan, which also is suffering because of a hard-hit auto industry.

But, thank heaven, for some gallows humor. Bob Jones, a Bloomfield Hills, Mich., builder, opened the green building press conference with what has become his standard greeting while attending the show: "I tell people, 'Hi, I'm from Michigan and I'm here to make you feel better."

First to step up with a helping hand were the Long Island Builders Institute, many of its members, and several local electrical contractors and unions. Now, Long Island Cares, Inc. The Harry Chapin Food Bank is delivering more than 30,000 pounds of food to the Miraculous Medal Church in Wyandanch.

After a recent fire destroyed the church's outreach center, which provides food and clothing to needy families and individuals, LIBI and several local businesses, contractors and unions helped install a temporary storage facility and upgraded the center's electrical service. But the fire also destroyed the substantial food supply the church had gathered.

Since the church supplies nearly 1,000 families each month with food and clothing, Long Island Cares executive director Lynn Needelman said the need for another group to step up was obvious. "We immediately offered our support as soon as they were ready to receive donations again,” Needeleman said. "We have worked with the church’s outreach program for over 20 years and are very happy that things are moving quickly back to normal."

Deliveries are scheduled for Saturday morning, according to Long Island Cares. Pallets of juice, pancake mix, rice, canned meats and fish and canned vegetables are on the menu. The food delivery means the church's Gerald Ryan Outreach Center should be up and running some time next week.

Long Island Cares, Inc., The Harry Chapin Food Bank was founded by the late singer activist in 1980 and is Long Island’s only food bank, distributing almost five million pounds of food to over 600 emergency food programs across Long Island. For more information call (631) 582-FOOD or visit www.licares.org.

Newsday reports that New Cassel residents "have been assured by North Hempstead and Nassau County officials that the hamlet's $60-million downtown revitalization will be completed without delays despite the recent grand larceny arrest of one of the project's key developers." Dix Hills builder Ranjan Batheja, who was recently arrested, "likely will result in Nassau County keeping title to one of his three projects and seeking reimbursements of thousands of dollars in real estate tax breaks doled out to him." Read the full story here.

The Long Island-New York City chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry stages its annual trade show Jan. 28 at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City. Featuring more than 100 exhibitors, NARI's 2008 Contractor Trade Show will offer a series of educational seminars, displays of new products and live demonstrations. Previous shows have attracted more than 800 contractors and hundreds of other industry professionals.
The show runs from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. and is open to remodeling industry professionals.
For more information, visit nari-ny.org or call 631-673-6274.
-- GARY DYMSKI

Long Island won't experience the catastropic slump in new construction because developers haven't overbuilt houses on spec, Michael Watt, the new head of the Long Island Builders Institute, tells Newsday in today's paper. "A lot of guys nationally built homes, even divisions, on spec because everybody was flying high, and then all of a sudden they got stuck with a ton of product," he says. Read the full report here.

With his contracting firm starting to emphasize green building solutions, Marc Gunthner says collaborating with a new television show “Wasted” was one of those perfect matches.

Gunthner’s company, Paul Davis Restoration & Remodeling of Long Island, will be featured on the Discovery Channel program some time this spring. Segments featuring an Oceanside remodeling project were filmed earlier this month, Gunthner says.

“The show focuses on minimizing waste, conserving energy, those types [of] things, and it’s a niche we’re starting to be more and more concerned about as a company,” says Gunthner, whose Huntington-based firm is one of 1,800 Paul Davis franchises nationwide. Franchises specialize in insurance restoration services and commercial and residential remodeling.

For the program, Gunthner’s company installed a rain-retention system, which captures and stores rain water for landscape irrigation. In addition, the company used infrared technology to analyze indoor heat loss through windows and doors. Once the drafty areas were identified, insulation was installed to improve the energy efficiency of the house.

“Basically, we were on-site handy men on the show while working with the ‘Wasted’ production crew and on-air cast,” Gunthner says.

The show, which is scheduled to premiere this spring, features energy-saving strategies, green products and eco-friendly changes to homes and businesses. The show’s goal is to inspire a “greener lifestyle.”

“It’s a fun show with a great message, and we’re glad to be involved,” Gunthner says.

Paul Davis Restoration & Remodeling of Long Island, founded in 1990, recently restored a Huntington home to Energy Star specifications after the original structure exploded in November 2006 when a contractor severed a gas line on the property.

-- GARY DYMSKI

Real estate developer and part-time Hamptonite R. Donahue Peebles received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award this week at the 11th Annual Wall Street Project Economic Summit in Manhattan. The award was presented by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who founded the project "to assure equal opportunity for minority employees, consumers and entrepreneurs." Peebles, the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of The Peebles Corporation, is the country’s largest African American real estate developer with a portfolio that includes luxury hotels and residential and commercial properties and projects under way in Washington, D.C., Miami Beach, the Florida Keys, San Francisco, Calif., and Las Vegas valued at more than $4 billion. Peebles has a home in Bridgehampton. Property records show that Peebles bought the home in March 2007 for $5.39 million. The house sits on 10 acres and includes a main house containing about 10,000 square feet, as well as two guest houses. The main house has six bedrooms, four full baths and two half-baths, as well as a formal living and dining rooms, a ballroom, a family room and an office. There is also a swimming pool, walking and meditating gardens and an outdoor shower. Of the house, Peebles tells Newsday: “We spend the summer there, and then weekends in the fall and spring.”

Photo by Newsday/Alejandra Villa

Post holiday, everyone’s shopping for discounts, but developer Eric Friedlander isn’t looking for something like shoes.

The head of the Friedlander Organization and chairman of Windemere Development Corp. has been hunting for value in bulk packages of unsold, newly-constructed homes – practically entire developments sometimes – that developers and lenders want off their books. He’s been jetting around examining properties, mostly in Florida and Arizona. In Florida, for example, he’s made 12 shopping trips in the past six months, lost out on one deal there this month and is negotiating on 34 houses in Naples, on the state’s west coast.

Today, he plans to be in Fort Myers, also on the west coast, to peruse a bundle of about 25 homes.

“They were selling for $400,000, and I’m trying to get it from the bank for $150,000,” Friedlander said.

That’s the way supply and demand have been working recently in the “new build” sector of housing. Many developers raced to build as much as they could to take advantage of the housing boom and are now stuck with stock. Lenders who gave them money have called in their loans and now try to sell them off for under market value.

“It takes time for the seller to come to grips on what they’re able to get on a bulk sale,” he said. “You have to get as much as you can get for the money because who knows how long you’ll have to hold” the properties.

Like other developers, Friedlander, an East Norwich resident, wants to seize opportunities in the mortgage crisis and buy up in an industry he knows well. If there are half-built houses and roads, he knows how to finish them. He’s got the money to buy up blocks of foreclosures and low-performing loans that Wall Street and lenders have been writing off, but he said he’s not familiar with the business of selling foreclosures and doesn’t want to build his fortune kicking people out of homes.

Friedlander, who built subdivisions in North Bellmore, Coram, Bay Shore, Laurel Hollow and other communities, will sell his investment properties for more than what he paid but under market value – a way to get them off his hands quick – or rent them until the real estate sector stabilizes.

He’s heard complaints that buyers have refused to close on some new homes because they think the real estate market hasn’t hit bottom prices yet.

But Friedlander, a former bond trader, doesn’t want to wait for bigger discounts because the current market might turn out to be the rock bottom and once everything improves, he’ll have lost his bargaining leverage on “hard assets”.

“If you can buy value today,” Friedlander said, “there’s no reason you shouldn’t buy value today.”

The Long Island Housing Partnership and the town of Southampton are looking for 14 winning names today, and the prize for each lottery winner is a new condominium in the Courtyards at Southampton.

Developed by Majors Path Associates LLC, the condo units are designed for workforce housing. Some 111 names are entered in the drawing. Of the 50 units at the complex, 14 will go to lottery winners.

The two- and three-bedroom units range in price from about $203,000 to $341,000. Depending on income level, each lottery winner can qualify for a subsidy that will reduce the cost from between about $143,000 to $316,000. To qualify for the subsidies, family income must be between $49,000 and $93,000. Family size also is involved in the equation, and town residents have preferred eligibility status.

“This is a unique, first-of-its-kind, East End development that contains affordable homes within a condominium complex,” said Peter Elkowitz, president and CEO of the L.I. Housing Partnership.

Southampton Town Supervisor Patrick Heaney said he was pleased at the cooperation between the town and the LIHP. “Creative public/private partnerships like these are the best way to put our valued working families into safe, affordable homes in the communities where they live and work,” he said.

The LIHP, formed in 1988, is a nonprofit geared toward providing affordable housing. More information is at lihp.org.

-- GARY DYMSKI

The new book "Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New York (W.W. Norton, $50)" pulls together essays, photographs and a catalog of planning programs that highlight the master builder’s impact on the metropolitan landscape.

Love him or hate him, Moses opened up Long Island to the masses. For years, he reigned over the Long Island State Parks Commission, a group that was responsible for creating a string of parks linked by parkways stretching from the Queens line to Montauk Point. Thirteen parkways, including the Southern State, Northern State and the Meadowbrook, were built during his tenure. Heckscher State Park, Belmont Lake State Park and Jones Beach State Park were also developed by Moses as leisure destinations for the everyman.

Robert Wieboldt, retiring from the Long Island Builders Institute, as Newsday reports, has had an insider’s view of some historic events in the state’s history.

Wieboldt relishes his role in the 1970 battle over abortion rights when he was chief aide to state Sen. Thomas Laverne, a Rochester Republican who personally disliked abortion but favored choice.

In April, on the day of a key vote to change state law and make abortion a private matter, the anti-abortion forces handed buckets with fetuses, in gory color, to senators. That made a lot of lawmakers nervous.

“Do something,” Wieboldt remembers Laverne telling him in the office.

“I walked out and I saw this closet,” he recounted. “I bought out all these coat hangers, 50 of them, and passed them out to all the senators.”

The Senate passed the bill with a 31 to 26 vote.

Wieboldt knows how state officials under Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in the mid 1960s figured the cost of Pure Waters Bond Act, which would fund the creation of sewage infrastructure systems and clean up New York’s polluted waters . . .

It's hard enough for homeowners to get permits to make changes to their home. Then here comes a builder trying to cut corners, or worse, at least according to investigators. As Newsday reports, Robert Fitzpatrick of Periwinkle Associates, which builds Smithtown-area homes, "is accused of listing himself as the owner of a home he did not own and of filing a permit application to build an addition on home, when in fact he was building an entire house." He was charged as part of a two-year Suffolk County district attorney probe into the town's building department. Read more about the investigation here.

Les Scheinfield of Habitat for Humanity of Suffolk County and builder Victor Irizarry have made a promise. And no matter how difficult that promise appears to be, it’s one they full intend to keep.

Scheinfeld, as associate director of the local Habitat nonprofit, and Irizarry, as owner of Ronkonkoma-based Whitford Homes, are spearheading the construction of a new house -- in just five weeks -- for Zandra Green and her daughter, Diamond, 5. The two now live in a cramped, moldy basement apartment in shirley. Construction on the Green’s new home at 186 Hounslow Ave. in Shirley began today at noon, and the first wall is schedule to be raised at 1 p.m.

“Zandra and Diamond will wake up Christmas morning in a new home,” Scheinfield said.

Irizarry, who also is the president of the Long Island Builders’ Institute, vowed to Scheinfeld and the Green family that the home would be completed before Christmas. In most cases, new homes can take from six months to 12 months to build.

“We reached out to our building partners, suppliers and contractors and were overwhelmed,” said Irizarry, praising the contributions of local industry professionals. “People were eager to donate time, materials and money to make this project a success.”

Long Island Home Builders Care, a nonprofit that supports LIBI’s affordable-housing projects, also is contributing to the construction, as are major sponsors Riverhead Building Supplies and Bank of America.

“We are so thankful to Habitat and their sponsors,” Zandra Green said.

Garden City trustees voted last month to negotiate with AvalonBay Properties, a rental mega-developer that owns thousands of Long Island apartments, Newsday reports. "The Avalon plan would preserve the building's exterior, while creating 62 luxury rental units inside under a 99-year land lease to Avalon. The developer would shoulder all the risk, and village residents would enjoy thousands of square feet reserved for the community, though the location and use of that space has yet to be determined." Read more here.

Newsday photo / Jim Peppler

It was a very sad story: Police rescued a 64-year-old man who was buried for days under a four-foot pile of debris inside his Centerport house. Neighbors thought the owner was a nice man but were annoyed about the condition of the house with its "dilapidated siding, boarded windows and junk-filled lawn," as Newsday reported last December. The man had owned the house since 1974.

The house is now under contract. Public records show Nesconset-based Casaga Building Corp. bought the East Main Street house in March for $60,000. Totally renovated, the split level is listed on the Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty Web site for $499,000. For that, the buyers gets three bedrooms, 2-1/2 baths and everything from a tumbled marble bathroom to granite countertops in the kitchen to central air conditioning.

Race horse Oprah Winney may not have won her last big race but she's got heart and will run for charity again, said her co-owner, residential builder Michael Dubb, president of the Jericho-based Beechwood Organization.

After a string of wins, the four-year-old gray filly didn’t make the top three at the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint last month in New Jersey. Her owners

David and Randi Hoyt wanted a new larger house. But instead of waiting for one to be built new, they decided to have one installed from a factory. Here's rhe result -- a new modular home in Locust Valley. Read more about their story and others who've gone modular here.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that "a small group of wealthy people are paying big premiums to have houses erected in record time." One such house -- a 10,000-square-foot mansion -- is being built in Bridgehampton in 10 months for real estate executive Robert Lapidus. "Those of us who work hard, we want instant gratification, speed is part of that," he says. Time was also money for Peter Briger, Jr., according to the article. The president of Fortress Investment Group just moved into an $18-million East Hampton house built for him by Wright & Co. Construction Inc. in 18 months. And for Steven Cohen, who founded SAC Capital Advisors, whose East Hampton mansion was built in 10 months for $18 million. Farrell Building of Bridgehampton built his house and the one beloning to Lapidus.

A typical Farrell Building Co. house in the Hamptons

There's an emerging trend for second kitchens, at least at the very high end of the housing market, reports Newsday's Carol Polsky. One is for cooking and the other for showing off, like this one in Amy and Ken Zhao's Lattingtown home. "This is the new thing," says John Kean, a luxury home builder based in Cold Spring Harbor. "We really didn't get much call for it until the last few years." Read the full story here.

Newsday Photo / Bill Davis

Developer Tom Gessler has confirmed to Newsday that his six-acre bluff-top property in Montauk, listed with the Corcoran Group, has recently gone into contract.

Gessler was asking $25 million for the spread, which includes a newly-built 4,700-square-foot home with amenities such as a library, a home theater, a wine cellar and a heated Gunite pool. He would not say what the sale price was, but said the deal is expected to be finalized in January 2008. A guesthouse is also being built on the land, with construction slated for early next year.

The new owners, Gessler says, are a prominent young couple who enjoy surfing and who “wanted to be in Montauk, not East Hampton … They like the outdoors environment and what Montauk represents.”

Owners of neighboring properties include musician Paul Simon, photographer Peter Beard and Mickey Drexler, CEO of J.Crew.

Gessler has a special place in his heart for Montauk. “It’s a town I love…it’s a special place,” adding that in the past, “people have not seen it for what it is. People used to think of Montauk as a fishing and drinking town. It’s never been that … If it was, why would people like Ralph Lauren, Robert De Niro and Peter Kalikow all have homes here? They bought here 20 or 25 years ago because it’s a special town.”

Gessler says that the real estate market downturn seen in areas to the west of the town has not hit Montauk. “Montauk is 70 percent preserved land. There are not many unbuilt lots and the demand outstrips the supply.”

She’s rich, beautiful, successful and she’s named Oprah Winney.

She’s a dappled gray, 4-year-old filly who loves kids, carrots and candy – especially peppermint – and today, she and her owner, residential developer and horse racer Michael Dubb, got on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

The show had called and filmed the media mogul’s namesake exercising at her winter home, Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, because like the celeb, Oprah Winney donates to charity. Profits from the horse’s merchandise go to the Belmont Child Care Association, a nonprofit that operates Belmont racetrack’s childcare center.

“I think she’s happy to talk about it because of all the good that’s come out of it,” Dubb said of the show host.

In the latest venture, Dubb and Oprah Winney co-owner Sanford Goldfarb will give the childcare center 10 percent of the horse’s possible winnings at the first-ever Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. The race is set for Saturday at Monmouth Park Racetrack in New Jersey. The total prize for horses that place is $1 million.

Newsday's Bill Murphy reports that the 159-acre Stow estate in Old Westbury is one step closer to becoming a gated community of 22 homes. The Nassau County Planning Commission approved a map change for the property, which is expected to lead to the development of the homes. Read the full story here.

From today's Newsday:

Long Island's new-home-construction industry, which has been shrinking for years, is now scraping the bottom, with building permit applications across the region plummeting to one of their lowest levels in half a century.

Read the full story here.

Following bad news from Lennar Corp. and KB Home, Newsday's Ellen Yan files this report:

"Local companies have been taking punches from the downturn, and there's been a ripple effect on the economy, from layoffs to fewer new houses being built. Spanking new homes have lingered on for-sale lists for nine months or more, compared with quick deals in recent years. Land, bought by builders during good times, sits empty, but tax and maintenance costs continue, as builders try to sell them off to someone else -- even government -- complete with hard-won building permits."

Read the story about how builders like Ira Tane, of Benchmark Home Builders in Huntington Station, are coping with the slower market. In his case, he's building smaller houses.

Newsday Photo / David L. Pokress

This eight-bedroom Colonial in Brookville just went on the market for $2.9 million. The Daniel Gale Sotheby's listing characterizes it as a "Walter Uhl classic." Uhl was the builder responsible for Flower Hill Estates in Manhasset as well as other North Shore developments. Read his New York Times obit here.