You wouldn’t be stunned to satisfy Jeremy Morton within the Hamptons.
Tall and ruddy, Morton rented an house within the West Village and owned a 12,800-square-foot residence in East Hampton with an infinity pool, pool home and at-home health club on 2 acres.
He married his spouse, Brooke, at a black-tie wedding ceremony on the Metropolitan Membership. She would submit in regards to the couple’s life-style to her journey weblog and Instagram account, each referred to as the Glowtrotter, with footage detailing their dozens of journeys to locations like Burning Man, Greece and St. Tropez.
Undergirding the conspicuous consumption was a rising Hamptons actual property portfolio. The properties themselves mirrored the life-style: customized houses, the late-night hotspot Ruschmeyer’s, widespread faux-humble eateries Cyril’s Fish Home and Rick’s Crabby Cowboy Cafe, retail in Water Mill and Southampton, and finally a prize piece of Sag Harbor, the roughly 22,000-square-foot nook at 2 Fundamental Road and 22 Lengthy Island Avenue, on the site visitors circle the place Bay and Fundamental streets meet by the wharf. Morton paid $30 million for it in 2025, on the time essentially the most ever paid for Hamptons retail.
The Sag Harbor buy elevated Morton. Nonetheless, he appeared grumpy about being within the highlight. (There usually are not even publicly obtainable images of him.) “Individuals are shopping for properties within the Hamptons day by day,” he advised native information website 27East when a reporter requested about his Sag Harbor buy. “Is there some sort of obligation for the media to put in writing about it?”
Maybe he had purpose to be. In line with a number of companions, patrons and buyers, in addition to lawsuits and liens towards his properties, Morton generally skimped on paying contractors, was free about mission budgets and quietly stepped away from struggling initiatives on his method to constructing his portfolio. His exact outcomes are arduous to trace as a result of he generally invested alongside companions, typically cross-collateralizing initiatives. However a evaluate of lawsuits reveals he allegedly defaulted on tens of millions in loans to 3 totally different lenders.
“He swings for the fences, is a good talker and is admittedly good at presenting himself,” one former associate mentioned.
“My companies function in contentious industries involving substantial business transactions,” Morton wrote in a press release to The Actual Deal. “Litigation is an unlucky however widespread characteristic of that setting. Most of the issues referenced contain disputed allegations that stay unresolved, and in a number of situations the claims lack benefit or are already dismissed or settled. As a result of these instances are pending, I can not pretty litigate them by way of the media, however I stay assured the court docket course of will resolve them appropriately.”
Hamptons actual property can emit a siren music that’s arduous to disregard for individuals who’d make it wealthy. Nevertheless it’s not as straightforward because it appears to reap a fortune on the previous potato fields. Dwelling patrons are particularly fickle about location and end type, their budgets tied to the inventory market and bonus pool. Retail is seasonal, and loads of landlords minimize offers to remain full by way of the winter; eating places churn by way of operators and homeowners. As a result of revenue isn’t a given, possession of economic, hospitality and retail could be a standing image of its personal, with main gamers RFR’s Aby Rosen, Apollo’s Marc Rowan and Mindy Grey, spouse of Blackstone’s Jon Grey, recently picking up a Southampton movie show, the Montauk lobster shack Duryea’s and Sagaponack common retailer, respectively, locations they could manifest best summers, although locals typically bristle on the sprucing up of quainter institutions.
This energy transfer has trickled down. “I meet these new dads who’re right here, who say, ‘We must always get a fund collectively,’” Compass’ Matt Breitenbach mentioned. Breitenbach, who focuses on residential and was born within the Hamptons, mentioned informal playground conversations can now flip into advert hoc fund pitches. “It’s a bit nuts. There’s some huge cash in that area,” he mentioned.
“There was one lavatory that had, I wish to say 13 items of {hardware} that every had totally different finishes.”
Morton topped out at about $100 million in Hamptons actual property, in keeping with a evaluate of property information. One supply aware of the funds of Excelsior, Morton’s growth agency, mentioned the enterprise had been bringing in additional than $10 million in income yearly till the top of 2025.
A few of Morton’s companions say they’re proud of the outcomes. “His efficiency because the GP was usually constructive, and I used to be paid at or above the underwritten returns on the initiatives the place I exited,” one recurring investor mentioned.
Successes embody a row of East Hampton properties at 15, 17 and 18 2nd Avenue — he constructed 15 and 17 from the bottom up — that he bought in 2022 for greater than $8 million, roughly triple what he paid in 2020. He additionally bought the Water Mill retail heart for $13 million to Robert Zecher’s Vault Improvement Companions after shopping for it for $8.7 million two years prior.
However Morton’s present initiatives have mechanic’s liens filed from subcontractors for over $300,000. (“All of my liabilities have both been paid, negotiated, or are within the means of a constructive decision,” he wrote in an electronic mail.) One other former associate counted himself fortunate: “I assume I got here beneath that apron of monies that had been wanted to be paid to sure individuals.”
Final 12 months, the individuals not getting paid began to swell. His portfolio quickly dwindled, as foreclosures and liens have piled up on cross-collateralized properties, a lot of which have money owed on them that he’s additionally personally assured. He seems to have bought different properties after incurring sizable money owed, or stepped away from possession, in keeping with sources aware of his holdings. Income in his growth firm fell to close zero in latest months, a supply aware of the agency’s funds mentioned. Morton didn’t reply to a query about his agency’s income.
Then, in Could, Morton turned over the prime Sag Harbor retail nook to lender Mavik Capital. The comedown wasn’t simply the top of a short-lived period as native mover and shaker but in addition sparked an even bigger query: how he managed to stage up from struggling on a pair small-time residential developments to scooping up a number of headline properties within the elite enclave.
“That man has a present for getting cash from individuals,” a supply who labored with Morton on a number of initiatives, together with his short-lived Morty’s Oyster Stand, advised TRD.
Nonetheless, in April — the identical month Morton was hit with the most recent lawsuit this 12 months, placing his alleged unpaid money owed as much as practically $10 million, in keeping with fits and liens — Morton and Brooke took a household trip to a coastal resort city in El Salvador.
“Estoy bien,” Brooke’s Instagram caption mentioned.
An increasing portfolio
Morton is from Minnesota, and his path to the Hamptons is fuzzy. A number of individuals who knew or labored with Morton say he ran a construction-related enterprise in Texas earlier than transferring to New York, the place he met Brooke, who started bringing Morton out to a buddy’s household’s place in Amagansett.
Jeremy doesn’t appear to have come from the sort of cash or standing that will have given them entry to the multimillion-dollar life-style they later loved. Morton’s mother works as an account govt for a multi-level-marketing firm, Energetix, which provides each holistic wellness merchandise and jewellery, whereas his dad owns a now-defunct electrician store, in keeping with LinkedIn.
In 2016, Morton established his first Hamptons growth outfit, Morton Customized Properties.
The next 12 months, he closed on the corporate’s first three properties, vacant plots the place he deliberate to construct spec houses utilizing his personal cash. Two had been in wooded areas between East Hampton and Sag Harbor, and the third on Bittersweet Lane in Amagansett. The frames went up shortly on the East Hampton houses, however Morton struggled to complete them as soon as the third mission was underway, a supply aware of the initiatives mentioned. By the top of 2017, he had misplaced all to the lender, in keeping with the lender, Alfonso Kimche of North Hill Capital Administration.
By 2019, he was again. For $1.3 million, he picked up Cyril’s Fish Home, as soon as identified for its post-beach frozen cocktail, the BBC (Banana Bailey Colada). After dropping its liquor license and falling afoul of the zoning code, Cyril’s had shuttered in 2016.
In 2020, he purchased one other trio of residential heaps for $2.5 million in the identical wooded space as his earlier residential initiatives.
He spent the following six years shopping for and promoting. Morton added no less than six extra residential properties, paying about $11 million.
His splashiest offers had been the restaurant and business purchases. In 2021, he paid $11 million for hotel and club-staurant Ruschmeyer’s, the place A-list celebrities like Vanessa Hudgens and Naomi Watts gathered. He purchased Rick’s Crabby Cowboy Cafe for $14 million, intending to show it right into a 14-key resort, although the plan fell flat in entrance of the native planning board. He additionally scored the Water Mill retail area, residence to the Soul Cycle and grocery retailer Provisions, for nearly $9 million. He owned Provisions too.
The native actual property guys didn’t know Morton. “It’s a small circle, and he’s probably not in it,” one energetic developer mentioned. “Particularly not anymore.”
As a substitute, Morton appeared to depend on rich associates. Paperwork present that he invested with Western Beef CEO Peter Castellana III, and sources say that his buyers additionally included Hamptons regulars like Chirp Golf president Charlie Grace. Adam Whittingham and Michael Musante’s The MW Group, a small Connecticut-based agency, went in on the Sag Harbor mission. Contacted for remark, the buyers declined to remark.
Morton and Brooke’s social profile rose alongside Morton’s portfolio.
Months after closing on Cyril’s Fish Home, Morton launched the stand as Morty’s Oyster Home and employed movie star chef Sam Talbot away from Surf Lodge. The restaurant made it onto practically each main Hamptons summer time preview checklist, from Eater to the New York Instances. Laura Donnelly from the East Hampton Star admired how the spot — not like another redone mainstays — appeared true to its roots.
“I don’t normally get into the background of latest homeowners, companions, buyers, and many others.,” she wrote, “however it’s value noting that these three fellas, Jeremy Morton, Jack Luber, and Charles Seich have the hospitality (and design and development) chops to make this place successful. It’s not simply one other “Duryea-ization” of a beloved previous rundown shanty.”
For July 4th of 2019, Morton attended a Studio 54-themed seaside celebration with stars of “Actual Housewives,” Ramona Singer and Kelly Dodd. The subsequent day, he hosted his personal celebration at Morty’s. The next week, Morty’s did the catering for Gucci at an occasion in Montauk. In 2021, he threw his fortieth, once more at Morty’s, then introduced in Diplo to DJ at Ruschmeyer’s for a daytime dance celebration that felt like the peak of a post-Covid cultural and social comeback.
“What a summer time,” Brooke captioned an Instagram story on Labor Day weekend, after one other celebration at Ruschmeyer’s.
They couldn’t grasp on. The Morty’s web site nonetheless reads: “Thanks for an excellent 2022 Summer time Season! See you in 2023!” however it by no means reopened. He bought Morty’s to David Miller for $2.4 million in late 2023, however regardless of the worth improve didn’t make a revenue after accounting for renovations.
Morton advised TRD he exited Rick’s Crabby and Ruschmeyer’s in 2021. Neither reached their former stage of native cachet. Rick’s burned down in 2023 and the possession group for Ruschmeyer’s has gone by way of a number of tried rebrands prior to now few years.
But Morton continued shopping for, including Southampton’s largest retail nook at 1-15 Hill Road and 1-17 Windmill Lane for $8.4 million in 2024. Final 12 months, he purchased the Sag Harbor nook at 2 Fundamental Road and 22 Lengthy Island Avenue, proposing to greater than double the sq. footage of the retail areas. At present he seems to personal a residential mission at 126 Lengthy Lane he purchased for $2 million in 2023, one other at 15 Fieldview Lane and his private residence — all in East Hampton, in keeping with property information.
Snags on spec
Morton’s earliest initiatives confirmed traits that outlined his decade as a developer within the Hamptons.
Concerning the time that Morton was doing his first initiatives in 2016, builders had been testing the concept patrons would think about high-end spec houses away from the well-trafficked coastal areas south of the freeway.
Two of his first three heaps had been on Whooping Hole Street, within the woodsy space between East Hampton and Sag Harbor. He paid $745,000, proof of the iffy location, and deliberate two spec houses.
“He was actually the primary one to start out constructing costlier homes on Whooping Hole,” mentioned a supply aware of the initiatives.
On this, Morton was prescient: Gross sales for luxurious houses north of Route 27 have crept up in recent times, however the heaps in East Hampton on Whooping Hole had been comparatively virgin when Morton began engaged on them.
He obtained an $850,000 development mortgage from Kimche’s North Hill Capital Administration, broke floor and obtained the frames up.
Within the design, he appeared much less savvy. “There was one lavatory that had, I wish to say 13 items of {hardware} that every had totally different finishes,” a supply aware of the mission mentioned.
Morton went again to his lender for a second mortgage — round double the scale of the primary — to purchase a 3rd plot of land at 15 Bittersweet Lane, close to Napeague Bay, the place Amagansett begins to slender towards Montauk. Kimche acquiesced, and Morton purchased the brand new property for $1.8 million.
Lower than a 12 months into beginning growth, he handed again the keys on all three houses. “He bit off greater than he might chew,” Kimche mentioned. “He began simply operating out of capital and underestimating his bills. It turned clear he was not going to have the ability to full all of them.” Kimche oversaw the completion of the houses, finally promoting them for nearly $8 million mixed.
“Jeremy was dancing. He was excited.”
At a 2022 mission at 73 Wainscott Stone Street in East Hampton, he obtained additional, shopping for the property for $3.4 million and constructing a resort-style property with a heated gunite pool, spa, health club, a non-public theater, sauna, steam bathe and three-car storage, in keeping with Zillow.
However he saved needing more cash to complete. By April 2024, he had taken out a mortgage for $12.4 million, which refinanced a earlier $5 million on the home. The brand new mortgage was collateralized by one other residence and matured in simply six months.
The Wainscott Stone home bought this 12 months for over $12 million, property information present.
Mortgage paperwork between Morton and U.S. Strategic Capital present that Morton took out $3.8 million from the lender to purchase an investor on the mission, developer Roy Stillman, out of two possession entities, certainly one of which was tied to 73 Wainscott Stone Street. Stillman mentioned he was paid again “100 cents on the greenback,” whereas Morton took again nothing.” “The proceeds I acquired from U.S. Strategic Capital had been used for precisely what they had been drawn for. Traders had been paid precisely how they had been presupposed to be and in full,” Morton wrote.
Morton “had a whole lot of transactions occurring directly,” Stillman mentioned on the time. “Which was possible a mistake.”
A kind of different offers was an bold construct at 825 Previous Sag Harbor Street in Water Mill, on a property Morton had purchased in 2022 for $1.6 million. He deliberate a sprawling 12,000-square-foot, shingled residence with 9 bedrooms and 12 loos. Melvin Rodriguez, whose spouse Monique based and bought Mielle Organics to P&G in 2023 for $600 million, agreed to pay $10.4 million in February 2025, in keeping with paperwork in a lawsuit filed by a money advance firm in January.
“Jeremy was dancing,” a supply aware of the deal mentioned. “He was excited.”
Commercial difficulties
That Morton, who struggled on three small-time residential initiatives, was unable to handle a extra mature portfolio that included meals and beverage and business is maybe not a shock. Bureaucratic quagmires are half and parcel of creating within the Hamptons.
“The cities usually are not straightforward,” Breitenbach mentioned.
Quickly after the shut, Ruschmeyer’s encountered points, together with the lack of its liquor license.
After Morton exited the mission in 2021, the remaining possession group, now led by Castellana, started purchasing the location.
“Throughout my involvement in 2021, Ruschmeyer’s carried out very effectively and I’m happy with the momentum created,” Morton mentioned. “There have been problems involving the switch of liquor licenses from the prior possession, so I exited my involvement on the time of the brand new liquor license software.”
Rick’s, which Morton additionally owned with Castellana, additionally had a snafu with its liquor license, which led its former proprietor, Richard Gibbs, and Morton to sue one another in summer time 2021. “We weren’t going to realize a brief time period revenue by promoting $10 hamburgers and salads after a $14,000,000.00 funding, however moderately by persevering with to promote alcohol and placing on occasions,” Morton wrote in a court docket submitting the next 12 months.
About the identical time, in December 2021, the East Hampton City Planning Board nixed Morton’s plans to increase the Rick’s property right into a resort, with a single-family residence, 110-seat restaurant, bar, swimming pool and health heart. “I simply wish to emphasize that this mission is means too giant,” one planning board member mentioned on the time. “There are such a lot of totally different issues with it.”
Morton’s most bold proposal, for the Sag Harbor retail property, concerned doubling the sq. footage to extend the variety of companies to 27 from 15. The Sag Harbor Village Planning Board was skeptical in regards to the disruption to the intersection.
“You’re going to don’t have any enterprise use [or] pedestrian use for a number of years,” board member Drew Harvey mentioned, shocked, at a November assembly. “It’s an enormous ask. It’s an enormous development mission. Is that this what we’re sticking with?”
Sure, Morton advised them.
Months later, when he turned the keys over to Mavik, he had modified his tune.
“The mission required plenty of approvals and entitlements, and sadly these approvals weren’t obtained throughout the timeframe required by our financing,” he mentioned in a press release.
Money troubles
Morton’s troubles, although, appear to derive from greater than troublesome approval processes.
At his mission at 825 Previous Sag Harbor Street, Morton struggled to shut the take care of Rodriguez. The Zillow itemizing reveals that the property entered into the MLS as pending sale 4 separate occasions earlier than being eliminated. Sources aware of the mission mentioned work stalled after Morton didn’t pay contractors.
“Melvin was like ‘What the hell, why is that this taking so lengthy?’” the supply mentioned.
A supply aware of Morton’s Sag Harbor mission mentioned that the monetary stress from residential initiatives not closing impacted his means to fund pre-development prices within the retail funding. Morton mentioned this was “not factual in any means” and that he nor different members of the investor group “had been required to supply ongoing funding of this property on this means, all capital got here from curiosity reserve and rental revenue.”
For the following 12 months, Morton started the scramble of his life. He mortgaged his remaining properties and took out ultra-short time period loans, in keeping with lawsuits filed from a number of of his lenders.
Morton mortgaged his private East Hampton residence for $5 million in March 2025. 4 months later, he took out practically $4 million in bridge capital from U.S. Strategic Capital, collateralized by his own residence and by one of many residential houses he nonetheless hasn’t bought, the one at 126 Lengthy Lane. He additionally obtained $300,000 from Merely Funding, a money advance agency which he shortly stopped making required funds on. Contractors at Lengthy Lane are additionally owed $300,000, in keeping with mechanic’s liens filed on the property within the final 12 months.
In November, he allegedly defaulted on his mortgage from U.S.S.C. and the unique $3.8 million development mortgage from Temple View Capital he had taken out for Lengthy Lane, in keeping with lawsuits from each lenders. In December, he allegedly defaulted on the mortgage on his private residence, per one other lawsuit filed by his lender, JPMorgan Chase. Morton says the defaults are within the means of being remedied.
Two months later, the MW Group, buyers within the Sag Harbor retail nook, filed an $850,000 collateral mortgage on the identical residence.
In Could, a court docket dominated that Merely Funding had the correct to Morton’s possession pursuits in eight totally different entities. It’s not clear how beneficial these are, as Morton’s collectors proceed to battle over his portfolio’s scraps. “Merely Funding, as a part of a group technique, took possession of closed particular function entity firms which can be irrelevant to any day after day operations,” Morton said in an electronic mail. “This assortment exercise has stopped as this mortgage is being paid as agreed.”
The sale of 825 Previous Sag Harbor lastly closed in February, in keeping with property information.
Even earlier than the closing, Morton started to fundraise for 3 new initiatives, in keeping with investor paperwork shared with TRD.
In October, he closed on one, an East Hampton lot, for $3 million.
The paperwork mission a 60 p.c return.
