An East Hampton building, owned by the designer Elie Tahari and his son Jeremy Tahari, has been sold for $22 million, according to an announcement from Cushman & Wakefield. The property at 1 Main Street, currently occupied by Cartier, was acquired by Bernard Arnault, the French billionaire businessman who is, according to Forbes, the richest person in the world, and is chairman and CEO of the French conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Best known as simply LVMH, it is world’s largest luxury goods company. [Source: Behindthehedges.com]
“We are thrilled to have arranged the sale of 1 Main Street, one of the most iconic retail assets in East Hampton. Luxury brands such as LVMH have embraced the East End of Long Island, not just on a seasonal basis but a full-time lifestyle,” said Jordan Sutton of Cushman & Wakefield, a leading global real estate services firm.
Sutton, Robert Shapiro, Dan Abbondandolo and Victor Little represented the sellers. The sale closed on Friday, March 31, 2023, the biggest commercial trade on the East End so far this year. The two-floor, 5,000-square-foot retail building sits at the most prominent location in the village at the corner of Main Street and Newtown Lane.
“Retail pockets such as Main Street have become a critical component to high-end retailers’ marketing and brand recognition. This transaction truly defines the strength of East Hampton’s downtown retail,” added Abbondandolo. Last summer, the village saw several new, high-end designer boutiques, including Valentino, Chanel and Prada, open up boutiques. “Cartier East Hampton Pop-Up,” which is owned by the Richemont Group, opened its doors just before Memorial Day and is currently closed, at least for the season. What Arnault and LVMH plan to bring to the village remains to be seen. Cushman & Wakefield declined to comment with respect to plans.
The Paris-based company controls Louis Vuitton and Moet & Chandon and about 60 subsidiaries that manage 75 prestigious brands, including Christian Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney and Sephora. It also acquired Tiffany & Co., which used to have a store on Main Street, for $15.8 billion in 2021, believed to be the biggest luxury brand acquisition in history.
Arnault, who has an approximate net worth of $226 billion, unseated Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter, for the richest person position in late 2022. The building at 1 Main Street is over 100 years ago, dating to 1917. Elie Tahari bought the building in 2006 for for $7.5 million, according to a history of the building by CurbedHamptons in 2016. His eponymous store opened in 2007 following a major renovation and restoration project and it close about a decade later.
The building was renovated last year to accommodate the Cartier boutique and it features natural light and a spacious layout. It is not clear if Cartier is returning for the 2023 season. While the sale of 1 Main Street is the biggest so far in 2023, the record for any village business district on the East End remains the sale of 66 Newtown Lane in 2022 for $28 million.
Though the Taharis have sold the building, they are looking for other real estate opportunities through Tahari Capital, a real estate investment fund that holds properties around the world. “I am aggressively pursuing multifamily opportunities in this market,” Jeremey Tahari, the managing partner, said in the statement. “Please reach out to me directly with any new opportunities.”
