Newsday Feb 20th 09 / Pity the dealer for $15,000-a-month
Friday, February 20th, 2009
Newsday Hamptons Story by MARK HARRINGTON February 20, 2009
With Hamptons home rentals trending downward, the impact on everything from luxury car rentals to high-end restaurants and art galleries looms large.
Image Exotic Car Rentals, a Manhattan company that typically sees 50 to 60 high-priced rentals shipped to the Hamptons for the summer, is planning for 20 summer rentals, tops.
“This year it really hit the fan,” said Matt Adir, Image’s general manager, who saw the trend begin last summer.
Bob Schepps, president of the Southampton Chamber of Commerce, said merchants are depending on this summer to help recover from a winter he described as “the worst ever.”
Observers say car rentals are just the tip of the iceberg.
Noting the summer home rental market “drives the Hamptons,” Richard Finder of Prudential Douglas Elliman in Bridgehampton said a falloff “is going to trickle down to every aspect of the economy.”
“It brings a lot of people out here,” he said. “It fills the art galleries, the high-end restaurants, exotic car rentals. … The marinas will take a really big hit.”
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