Dan's Papers - January 18, 2008 - Paul Brennan

In a world of hotshot real estate brokers, it is refreshing to come upon a man who has arrived at the top of his game in a field simply by being fair, honorable and patient. That he is also a local boy born and raised, with a family that goes back three hundred years is a plus.

Paul Brennan is from Bridgehampton, born the son of a potato farmer and the grandson of a potato farmer from the Flatlands section of Brooklyn. The Brennans, as a family, are well known in this community.

On his mother's side, Mr. Brennan's ancestry on the East End goes back to the founding of Southampton in 1640. Southampton was founded as the first town in New York State. There were the Sayres - his mother's maiden name -dating back to Thomas Sayre, one of the original "undertakers," as they were known in the original Town records. The Sayres were farmers too, just as the Brennans of a later generation were.

Today, the Bridgehampton School's sports teams are known as the Killer Bees. But in Mr. Brennan's youth, the teams were simply called the "Bridgies." He played baseball in that school, and then, in 10th grade, went off to Mercy, the Catholic School in Riverhead, where he starred in basketball.

"A highlight of my youth," he told me, "was hitting a homerun in little league, with Carl Yastremski in the stands watching."

Mr. Brennan was twelve. Yastremski, the legendary star for the Boston Red Sox, was 26 at the time, and home visiting his family. He too, grew up in Bridgehampton.

Like Yastremski, Mr. Brennan worked on his father's farm planting, spraying and harvesting potatoes, cucumbers and cabbage.

His secondary education came at Assumption College, a small Catholic school located in Worcester, Massachusetts. He played basketball there and was recognized as an All- American. Then, after graduation, with a degree in Social Rehabilitation, he went off to Australia for two years.

"Seems a bit out of character," I said.

"Perhaps," he answered. "I wanted to play a few more years before I hung the sneakers up." I spent so many years playing and at that time I couldn't see myself coming home to farm. I knew the NBA was highly unlikely so the Australian league became a viable alternative." Mr. Brennan played in Australia for the Bankstown Bruins. The team toured Australia and he enjoyed two highly successful seasons for the Sydney team.

At this time, an important event occurred in his life. A decision had to be made to stay in Australia with permanent residence status playing hoops, or come home. He very much missed the Hamptons, specifically Bridgehampton. But what would he do? One day, he wrote a long letter to Allan Schneider, one of the most successful real estate agents in the Hamptons of that era, asking his advice about what he should do. He was 23. Mr. Schneider was 43. The two knew each other from Mr. Schneider's involvement with the sale of part of Mr. Brennan's father's farm.

Mr. Schneider suggested he should pursue a career in the service field and if interested, he would make room for Mr. Brennan in his first and original office in Bridgehampton. After some soul searching Mr. Brennan agreed and began his long journey home.

Thus, it was 30 years ago that Mr. Brennan became a realtor in the Hamptons. By his own admission, he enjoyed the parties with Mr. Schneider more than the real estate business. He had a draw of $175.00 a month.

"Like many rookie agents I didn't sell anything for quite some time," he said. "So it's fair to say I was losing money that first year because I was slowly going into debt with this draw and no commissions to apply against it."

Then, in 1979, Mr. Brennan made his first sale. It was a large waterfront house at the end of Bay Lane in Water Mill. Located across from the small Yacht Club it was being sold by the late John Morrison and went for $350,000. And the people who bought it, said Mr. Brennan, are still there today.

From that sale, the rise of Paul Brennan, the local potato farmer's son, was never in doubt.

In 1981, with his career now thriving, he met and married newscaster Connie Collins of NBC (they divorced in 2002), had two children - Ashley now 25 and Sayre now 22 - and lived in a house they bought across from the Bridgehampton Golf Course on Sagaponack Road. Shortly after that, Mr. Brennan founded, along with two other gentlemen, the highly successful real estate firm of Braverman, Newbold Brennan, which in very short order expanded to three offices, one in East Hampton, one in Sag Harbor and a third in Bridgehampton. In 1995, that firm became one of the first in this community to be sold in what would soon become a great consolidation of the real estate business. The buyer of Braverman Newbold Brennan was Sotheby's International Real Estate, which still maintains the original BNB locations.

In 1997, after working with Sotheby's for two years, Mr. Brennan met Dottie Herman, who owned Prudential Long Island Realty - a large mid-island firm that was looking to expand into the Hamptons' lucrative but competitive market. "Dottie was then and is now a dynamic woman with a vision beyond the way business had been traditionally done in the Hamptons. I knew from listening to her that the small real estate firms were destined to follow a similar path as the small farms in the area. Everything that she predicted ten years ago about the real estate business has come true." And he knew then that Ms. Herman was a person he wanted to work with.

In ten years, with Mr. Brennan's drive and expertise combined with Ms. Herman's vision and financial backing, Prudential Douglas Elliman has grown from one small two-room office on the second floor over an antique shop to eleven stylish offices in great locations throughout the Hamptons, and 67 from Manhattan to Montauk with over 3,000 agents. And they are still growing.

"It has been both challenging and rewarding building this many offices from the ground up," Mr. Brennan said. "Five years ago, Howard Lorber became a partner in PDE and both he and Dottie have been very supportive in helping me build this region along with many other loyal and hardworking managers and agents. I'd love to tell you it was all me but the truth is I could have never done it alone."

He continued, "Let's just say I am eternally grateful to all of those who have helped me share and build Dottie's original vision."

Mr. Brennan has brokered many major transactions in his 30 years as an agent with many celebrity names attached to them - Calvin Klein, Peter Jennings, Peter Maas, Susan Isaacs, Ed Gordon, Mickey Drexler, Edgar Bronfman, Ed Meyer, Ian Schrager, Steve Green, Ken Auletta to name a few. However, the largest transaction that he did, considering its impact upon the community, is the sale of a property to the Atlantic Golf Course on Scuttlehole Road in Bridgehampton. "When Lowell Schulman purchased that property with the intent of creating a championship golf course, I knew it would bring a new perspective to north of the highway. It gave people permission, and an opportunity, to move north of 27 without feeling they were on the wrong side of the tracks," he said. Interest in north of the highway over the past ten years has proven that fact.

With growth comes development of a precious commodity we all enjoy on the East End and that is open space. "So much has changed since I was a boy growing up," said Mr. Brennan, who is now in his 55th year. "The greatest asset of the area, in my humble opinion, was the vast expanse of farmland that would allow the eye to see for many uninterrupted miles. Those expansive views are no longer the norm but I'm proud to have served the Town of Southampton and currently The Nature Conservancy in their cooperative quest to buy and preserve open space via the Community Preservation Fund." Since the CPF's inception nine years ago, ten thousand acres have been saved and over $500 million has been raised as a result of its two-percent transfer tax.

"Why would a realtor want to preserve land?" I asked Paul.

"I have always had the perspective that the Hamptons is a unique area, especially since the majority of Long Island has gone the way of overdevelopment under the guise of progress," he replied. "My grandfather was pushed out of Brooklyn in 1910 and it took nearly 100 years for the same mentality to develop every square inch to reach Bridgehampton. Our current well-being and future success depend upon shifting that 'more is better' mentality. In respect to the Hamptons, our consciousness should be 'less is more.' It maintains our uniqueness, our character, our natural beauty and ultimately our real estate values."

Mr. Brennan has also been instrumental in working as a trustee of the Bridgehampton Historical Society, helping to raise funds for the preservation and renovation of the Rogers House located at the monument in downtown Bridgehampton, purchased and saved by the Town of Southampton with CPF funds and individual donations. "At the time, Dennis Suskind was a Town Councilman and I was the President of the BHHS, and we worked very hard with many others in the community to help preserve this beautiful but neglected edifice that was part of downtown Bridgehampton." According to Mr. Brennan, work is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2008.

Finally, Mr. Brennan is working with his boss Howard Lorber, who lives in Southampton Village, on the board of the Hospital Foundation. "Howard and I are committed to helping Southampton Hospital become the best hospital it can be," he explained. "I was born in that hospital and my sister Ruth Foley has worked in the radiology department for many years. There is no reason Southampton Hospital should not enjoy the positive image it deserves. Robert Chaloner, the President and CEO is doing an exceptional job in bringing positive change to an institution that is a community priority."

Mr. Brennan currently lives in Sagaponack with his longtime love, Sonia Gaviola.