Underground and Over the Top in the Hamptons

Featuring Gary DePersia and his listings at 23 Luther Drive in Water Mill and his listing with Tim Davis at 9 Olde Town Lane in Southampton, as well as Randi Ball and her listings at 93, 99 & 101 Three Sisters Lane, Amagansett, The Hamptons.

 

Two years ago, Sheraton Kalouria bought more than a third of an acre in East Hampton Village, planning to build a second home with plenty of room for visiting family and friends. But with an odd-shaped lot and setback constraints, there was only one way to build a house that was as big as he wanted: Dig down.

A good portion of the house is hidden underground. Beneath a two-story contemporary completed in June is a 1,500-square-foot basement with 12-foot ceilings that includes two guest rooms with en-suite baths and a screening room.

“It’s sort of necessity breeding invention,” said Mr. Kalouria, a television executive who spends most of his time in Los Angeles. Though he started the project as a single person, Mr. Kalouria has since met Gary Bradhering, a private equity investor, and the two plan to start a life together. They have decided to share Mr. Bradhering’s house in Amagansett and to sell Mr. Kalouria’s custom-built home at 11 Muchmore Lane, with a list price of$4.875 million. “The address gave us a lot to live up to,” he said. By going big on the basement, he said, “I think we achieved it.”

In the Hamptons, stricter building codes and rising real estate prices are forcing home builders underground. In the last 14 months, the Villages of Southampton, Sag Harbor and East Hampton have all amended zoning codes to limit the size of homes. Since space below ground level is not counted in the overall square footage, burrowing down is a way to get more house for the money — or if you’re selling, to help justify the price. And as basements get bigger, owners are filling them with over-the-top amenities, including wine cellars, home theaters, spas and bowling alleys.

Gary DePersia, an associate broker with the Corcoran Group, is marketing two Hamptons homes with two-lane bowling alleys in the basement. One is a $13.9 million mansion in Water Mill that also includes a bar, a home theater and a slot car racing track below grade; the other, which he is selling with a colleague, Tim Davis, is a $39.5 million 15,500-square-foot estate in Southampton with an additional 6,000-square-foot basement with a theater, a gym, a full bar and billiards.

“You’re not allowed to call them basements anymore,” said Jeffrey Collé, a custom home builder, who recently completed a 12,500-square-foot house with a bedroom, a wine cellar, a home theater, a gym, a sauna and a steam room encompassing 5,000 square feet below grade in the Hamptons. “You can only call them lower levels.”

Unlike the dark, musty rec rooms of previous generations, many of these expansive subterranean levels have soaring ceilings, hardwood floors and large window wells that are dug outside below-grade windows to bring in air and sunshine, and create a legal bedroom with egress. High-end finishes match those found upstairs. And large patios dug out of the land around one side of the basement and framed by retaining walls allow for a wall of French doors that can afford an indoor/outdoor feel.

“You don’t have a feeling like you’re underground,” said Mr. Collé, who has built basements with ceilings as high as 16 feet. “These are open, airy spaces.”

That airy feeling underground was what Josh Guberman was going for when he bought a tear-down house perched on a steeply sloped acre in Southampton Village last year; it had been listed for $2.995 million with Matthew Breitenbach of Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

“The property was graded at such a high pitch, I was able to get a lot of light and air to the new basement,” said Mr. Guberman, a real estate developer who lives in the Hamptons with his wife, Meggan. He generally spends more per square foot on basements, including excavation and stone work, than on the upper floors, he said. “I’m very passionate about it.”

The last home he built for himself, a nine-bedroom in Bridgehampton, had a 1,200-bottle wine cellar, a fitness center with a wet bar, bath and sauna, and a professional screening room on the lower level. In his new place, a wall of glass in the gym and the family lounge looks out at a lower-level patio with a Japanese maple tree and a stone staircase that leads to the backyard, pool and tennis court beyond. Three lower-level bedrooms face a small courtyard with stacked stone walls lined with hydrangeas.

There are also a glass-enclosed wine room, a steam room, and a nine-seat home theater, which his family uses on a daily basis. “The kids are in the rec room or I’m down there grabbing bottles of wine,” he said. “We’re watching movies and hanging out. It’s an important integrated space.”

Finished basements have long been a cost-effective way to increase living space, but builders in the Hamptons say increased restrictions have kicked the trend into high gear.

“The square-footage allowance on a lot of the lots out here is tight, and the demand for bigger and bigger houses was increasing,” said Peter Sabbeth, the founder of Modern Green Home, a construction firm based in Bridgehampton. “The obvious place to give people that square footage was below ground.”

As with any basement, the water table plays a role in how deep a builder can dig down. But advances in building techniques have also improved waterproofing. For example, Modern Green Home uses pre-cast concrete walls, guaranteed to prevent water infiltration and moisture build-up. “We used to spend maybe $5,000 to $10,000 to waterproof a basement,” Mr. Sabbeth said. “Now we spend $50,000 to ensure all these luxuries are safeguarded.”

The company just finished three houses with pools, ranging from $4.5 million to $5.25 million, on Three Sisters Lane in Amagansett, which are being marketed by Randi Ball of Corcoran. Each has a large lower level with a gym, a wine cellar, a bedroom with an en-suite bath, and a movie theater that can seat 15 people.

“The longer the list of the amenities, the better,” said Diane Saatchi, an associate broker at Saunders & Associates, which has offices throughout the East End of Long Island and has sold homes with finished basements even under the pool house. “When there’s a lot of stuff underground, there’s a real feeling that you’re getting a lot for your money.”

The trend has been playing out not just in the Hamptons, but also in cities like New York and London, where prices are high and zoning restrictions can limit building size. In Central London, the “mega-basements” phenomenon got so out of hand, with proposals for multiple stories underground and lower levels extending out under the yard to house pools and cinemas, that the boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea limited the size and depth of these expansions last year.

The Village of East Hampton followed suit last year, amending its zoning code so that no part of a lower level extends beyond the exterior wall of the first story. And in case anyone gets the idea of building a double-height basement, the code now limits them to no more than 12 feet below natural grade.

Still, homes in other places continue to push the underground envelope. Michael Davis, a luxury home builder and designer, recently completed a custom estate in Bridgehampton with a tunnel that runs under the yard to connect the lower level in the main house to a gym below the pool house. The house’s 5,082-square-foot lower level has a bunk room, a playroom and a golf simulator room.

These connections, Mr. Davis said, “create a feeling of a compound” without the exterior of a huge mansion. “People don’t have to have as big a house as they might need if they can put a whole bunch of rooms in the lower level,” he said.

At the high end, where sales are beginning to soften, a tricked-out basement can also help justify the price. “You’re paying a tremendous amount for these small lots,” said Timothy Kelly, an agent with Douglas Elliman, who is handling Mr. Kalouria’s listing on Muchmore Lane in East Hampton Village. The additional space the lower level provides, Mr. Kelly said, “allows you to get the square footage number you need to justify the house on the lot.”

To stay competitive at the high end, “you absolutely have to build out the basement,” said Susan Cohen Sichenzia, a developer who is constructing a house at 56 Hedges Lane in Amagansett with an underground spa that has a built-in massage table, teak walls, and a sauna and steam room.

“People like to invite weekend guests,” she said. “They need a lot of weekend space. That’s the whole point of having the house — to entertain.”

Copyright © 2016 The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission. Daniel Gonzalez/The New York Times. 

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