Hamptons McMansions Herald a Return of Excess By Zena Barakat and Jim Rutenberg The McMansion Man: Joe Farrell, the largest real estate developer in the Hamptons, is changing the look of the elite beach destination. BRIDGEHAMPTON, N.Y. - Porsche ads clog the local radio here, houses are renting at close to the million-dollar range - for the summer - and Uber, an app that lets you order car service, reports that its new Hamptons luxury S.U.V. business is booming, $50 minimum fares and all. Mr. Farrell has more than 20 new homes under construction, or slated for construction, at a time, making him the biggest builder in the Hamptons by far. But there is no surer sign that the big-spending ways that characterized the pre-financial crisis era have returned to the Hamptons than the blue "Farrell Building" signs multiplying across the pristine landscape here, along with the multimillion-dollar houses they advertise. It is a process some are calling "Farrellization," and not necessarily happily. "We're as busy as we've ever been," said Joe Farrell, the president of Farrell Building, during a recent interview and tour of his $43 million, 17,000-square-foot home here. The estate, called the Sandcastle, features two bowling lanes, a skate ramp, onyx window frames and, just for fun, an A.T.M. regularly restocked with $20,000 in $10 bills. To spend a day with Mr. Farrell - a local version of Donald Trump, without the history of debt, the lush hair or the insults - is to see just how fully the Hamptons have rebounded, along with the confidence, and the bonuses, of their wealthier summer visitors. With a customer base composed largely of Wall Street financiers, Mr. Farrell has more than 20 new homes under construction, or slated for construction, at a time, making him the biggest builder here by far. He has plans for more, many of them speculative homes built before they have buyers. He said the going rate to rent his own home was around $500,000 for just two weeks; last year's tenants were Jay-Z and Beyoncé. He also helped arrange a $900,000 summer rental for the hedge fund manager Marc Leder, who has since drawn scrutiny from Southampton authorities - and gossip writers - for boisterous parties that draw an endless stream of black S.U.V."s. Of course, the Hamptons" wealthier enclaves did not exactly suffer through the great recession in the true sense of the word. Foreclosures hit lower-priced areas, but they were relatively few in the supermansion neighborhoods of Water Mill and Sagaponack. Many owners who were in real trouble were able to sell, if only at reduced prices. The summer rental market dipped, but scores of houses were still renting, for the equivalent of the national median annual salary. But many Hamptons-goers were wary of flagrant spending, out of either anxiety or decorum. So, Porsche and yacht sales slowed. High-rolling holders of black American Express cards tossed them around less frequently. And the practice in nightclubs of offering V.I.P. treatment to those willing to buy bottle service - entire bottles of alcohol, at a huge markup - fell out of favor, a development marked by the 2009 closing of the Southampton club that was known for it, Pink Elephant. Now local Porsche and yacht sales are climbing once again, and Pink Elephant reopened this summer in East Hampton offering Methuselah (six-liter) bottles of Dom Pérignon for $30,000. It is not just a novelty; the club's co-owner David Sarner said Pink Elephant had sold "a few" this season, and many more "trains" of smaller Dom Pérignon bottles for as much as $8,000. "It was a bit lean for a couple of years in the Hamptons," Mr. Sarner said in an interview, acknowledging that the term is relative. There's this at least perception that we're doing a lot better than perhaps we were, so people are freer to spend money because they're being psychologically conditioned with the highs in the market. This is not to say that appetites here have not been affected at all by the recession that was. "Houses have gotten smaller over all but not entirely: 8,000 square feet was the norm, now 6,500 is," Mr. Farrell said. Everyone wants six or seven bedrooms and their pool and their tennis. Where Mr. Farrell built speculative homes that sold for as much as $20 million before the recession, he now specializes in properties that sell for between $3 million and $10 million. "Mostly, though, $3 million to $6," he said. I love that market - there are probably 10 times as many people in that market than to buy an eight- or nine-million-dollar house, right?