Whittle Estate Saga Ends in East Hampton Foreclosure Auction

Creditors of Chris Whittle’s former East Hampton estate have finally unloaded it.

Following two failed attempts to auction the 11-acre property with a six-bedroom main house, lenders sold it to an unknown bidder Monday for an undisclosed price — but surely far less than the $95 million asking price.

An early June foreclosure auction of the Avenues school co-founder’s former property at 90 and 100 Briar Patch Road was postponed because the assigned referee missed it, saying later he was en route to Long Island from Florida.

Rescheduled for June 28 with a newly assigned referee, the auction was canceled again when no one showed up at East Hampton Town Hall to bid on the embattled two-lot estate, known as Briar Patch.

The third time proved to be the charm as Hong Kong-based real estate investor Golden Eagle International Trading secured a winning bid. The senior mortgage holder had gone after Whittle’s estate in a federal foreclosure case filed in September by the U.S. Bank National Association.

The bid was not likely enough to repay all the debt tied to the property, but organizers of the auction appear gratified that a qualified buyer stepped up.

“In light of this, we do not anticipate rescheduling our auction,” said Robin Muir of Goodwin Procter, attorney for another creditor, Pure East Global Investments Limited.

The property, on Georgica pond with nearly a quarter-mile of waterfront, was used as collateral by Whittle when he borrowed millions in 2013 from Avenues: The World School. But he never paid the loan back after leaving Avenues in 2015, Dirt reported.

The estate was purchased by the school in a 2021 foreclosure sale for a $700,000 credit bid, the outlet said. The price was low because Avenues, which was owed north of $6 million by Whittle, had to assume a mortgage that Whittle took out on the property to fund his subsequent venture, Whittle School & Studios.

In fact, Whittle managed to land two huge loans from Pure East: $25.4 million in 2017 and $25 million to Global Education Investments, which raises funds for school ventures.

Whittle, despite completing a three-year, starchitect-designed renovation of Briar Patch that added a four-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot guest house with its own driveway, had considerably less success selling the estate.

He listed it in 2001 for $45 million but found no takers, and put it on the market again in 2014 for $140 million and 2020 for $95 million with the same result, according to Dirt.

Meanwhile, interest on the loans piled up. A court issued judgments in August in favor of Pure East, with former referee Cornelius Rogers calculating $40.1 million due on one loan and $44.6 million due on the other.

Rogers added that the estate should be sold to help pay the $84.75 million. But although the twin properties tout five structures, 10 bedrooms, immaculate grounds and a view to the ocean, according to its listing by Bespoke, the East Hampton town assessor only valued the estate at $32 million, according to Behind the Hedges.

A representative for Whittle could not be reached for comment.