You wouldn’t be shocked to satisfy Jeremy Morton within the Hamptons.
Tall and ruddy, Morton rented an residence within the West Village and owned a 12,800-square-foot residence in East Hampton with an infinity pool, pool home and at-home gymnasium on 2 acres.
He married his spouse, Brooke, at a black-tie marriage ceremony on the Metropolitan Membership. She would publish concerning 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 Primary Avenue and 22 Lengthy Island Avenue, on the visitors circle the place Bay and Primary streets meet by the wharf. Morton paid $30 million for it in 2025, on the time probably the most ever paid for Hamptons retail.
The Sag Harbor buy elevated Morton. Nonetheless, he appeared grumpy about being within the highlight. (There are usually not even publicly out there images of him.) “Individuals are shopping for properties within the Hamptons daily,” he informed native information web site 27East when a reporter requested about his Sag Harbor buy. “Is there some type of obligation for the media to write down about it?”
Maybe he had cause to be. In accordance with a number of companions, patrons and traders, in addition to lawsuits and liens in opposition to his properties, Morton typically skimped on paying contractors, was unfastened about challenge budgets and quietly stepped away from struggling initiatives on his method to constructing his portfolio. His exact outcomes are laborious to trace as a result of he typically invested alongside companions, typically cross-collateralizing initiatives. However a evaluate of lawsuits reveals he allegedly defaulted on hundreds of thousands in loans to 3 completely different lenders.
“He swings for the fences, is a good talker and is actually good at presenting himself,” one former accomplice stated.
“My companies function in contentious industries involving substantial industrial transactions,” Morton wrote in a press release to The Actual Deal. “Litigation is an unlucky however frequent function of that atmosphere. Lots of the issues referenced contain disputed allegations that stay unresolved, and in a number of situations the claims lack advantage or are already dismissed or settled. As a result of these circumstances are pending, I can not pretty litigate them via 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 laborious to disregard for many who’d make it wealthy. But it surely’s not as straightforward because it appears to reap a fortune on the outdated 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 lower offers to remain full via the winter; eating places churn via operators and house owners. As a result of revenue isn’t a given, possession of economic, hospitality and retail generally is 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 basic retailer, respectively, locations they could manifest ultimate 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 stated. Breitenbach, who focuses on residential and was born within the Hamptons, stated 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 stated.
“There was one rest room that had, I wish to say 13 items of {hardware} that every had completely different finishes.”
Morton topped out at about $100 million in Hamptons actual property, in accordance with a evaluate of property information. One supply acquainted with the funds of Excelsior, Morton’s growth agency, stated the enterprise had been bringing in additional than $10 million in income yearly till the tip of 2025.
A few of Morton’s companions say they’re pleased with the outcomes. “His efficiency because the GP was usually optimistic, and I used to be paid at or above the underwritten returns on the initiatives the place I exited,” one recurring investor stated.
Successes embrace a row of East Hampton properties at 15, 17 and 18 2nd Avenue — he constructed 15 and 17 from the bottom up — that he offered in 2022 for greater than $8 million, roughly triple what he paid in 2020. He additionally offered 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 strategy of a optimistic decision,” he wrote in an electronic mail.) One other former accomplice counted himself fortunate: “I suppose I got here below that apron of monies that have been wanted to be paid to sure folks.”
Final 12 months, the folks not getting paid began to swell. His portfolio quickly dwindled, as foreclosures and liens have piled up on cross-collateralized properties, lots of which have money owed on them that he’s additionally personally assured. He seems to have offered different properties after incurring sizable money owed, or stepped away from possession, in accordance with sources acquainted with his holdings. Income in his growth firm fell to close zero in current months, a supply acquainted with the agency’s funds stated. Morton didn’t reply to a query about his agency’s income.
Then, in Might, Morton turned over the prime Sag Harbor retail nook to lender Mavik Capital. The comedown wasn’t simply the tip of a short-lived period as native mover and shaker but additionally sparked a much bigger query: how he managed to degree 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 folks,” a supply who labored with Morton on a number of initiatives, together with his short-lived Morty’s Oyster Stand, informed 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 almost $10 million, in accordance 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 stated.
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 good friend’s household’s place in Amagansett.
Jeremy doesn’t appear to have come from the type of cash or standing that might 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 accordance with LinkedIn.
In 2016, Morton established his first Hamptons growth outfit, Morton Customized Houses.
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 have 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 challenge was underway, a supply acquainted with the initiatives stated. By the tip of 2017, he had misplaced all to the lender, in accordance 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 recognized 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 tons for $2.5 million in the identical wooded space as his earlier residential initiatives.
He spent the subsequent six years shopping for and promoting. Morton added a minimum of six extra residential properties, paying about $11 million.
His splashiest offers have been the restaurant and industrial 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 lodge, 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 not likely in it,” one energetic developer stated. “Particularly not anymore.”
As an alternative, Morton appeared to depend on rich pals. Paperwork present that he invested with Western Beef CEO Peter Castellana III, and sources say that his traders 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 challenge. Contacted for remark, the traders 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 almost 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 recent house owners, companions, traders, and so on.,” she wrote, “however it’s price 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 outdated rundown shanty.”
For July 4th of 2019, Morton attended a Studio 54-themed seashore celebration with stars of “Actual Housewives,” Ramona Singer and Kelly Dodd. The following day, he hosted his personal party 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 dangle on. The Morty’s web site nonetheless reads: “Thanks for an ideal 2022 Summer time Season! See you in 2023!” but it surely by no means reopened. He offered Morty’s to David Miller for $2.4 million in late 2023, however regardless of the value improve didn’t make a revenue after accounting for renovations.
Morton informed TRD he exited Rick’s Crabby and Ruschmeyer’s in 2021. Neither reached their former degree of native cachet. Rick’s burned down in 2023 and the possession group for Ruschmeyer’s has gone via 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 Avenue and 1-17 Windmill Lane for $8.4 million in 2024. Final 12 months, he purchased the Sag Harbor nook at 2 Primary Avenue and 22 Lengthy Island Avenue, proposing to greater than double the sq. footage of the retail areas. Presently he seems to personal a residential challenge 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 accordance with property information.
Snags on spec
Morton’s earliest initiatives confirmed traits that outlined his decade as a developer within the Hamptons.
In regards to the time that Morton was doing his first initiatives in 2016, builders have been testing the concept patrons would take into account high-end spec houses away from the well-trafficked coastal areas south of the freeway.
Two of his first three tons have been on Whooping Hole Highway, 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 begin constructing dearer homes on Whooping Hole,” stated a supply acquainted with the initiatives.
On this, Morton was prescient: Gross sales for luxurious houses north of Route 27 have crept up in recent times, however the tons in East Hampton on Whooping Hole have been comparatively virgin when Morton began engaged on them.
He received an $850,000 development mortgage from Kimche’s North Hill Capital Administration, broke floor and received the frames up.
Within the design, he appeared much less savvy. “There was one rest room that had, I wish to say 13 items of {hardware} that every had completely different finishes,” a supply acquainted with the challenge stated.
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 slim 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 may chew,” Kimche stated. “He began simply working 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 challenge at 73 Wainscott Stone Highway in East Hampton, he received additional, shopping for the property for $3.4 million and constructing a resort-style property with a heated gunite pool, spa, gymnasium, a personal theater, sauna, steam bathe and three-car storage, in accordance 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 offered 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 challenge, developer Roy Stillman, out of two possession entities, certainly one of which was tied to 73 Wainscott Stone Highway. Stillman stated he was paid again “100 cents on the greenback,” whereas Morton took again nothing.” “The proceeds I acquired from U.S. Strategic Capital have been used for precisely what they have been drawn for. Traders have been paid precisely how they have been imagined to be and in full,” Morton wrote.
Morton “had a whole lot of transactions occurring directly,” Stillman stated on the time. “Which was possible a mistake.”
A type of different offers was an bold construct at 825 Previous Sag Harbor Highway 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 bogs. Melvin Rodriguez, whose spouse Monique based and offered Mielle Organics to P&G in 2023 for $600 million, agreed to pay $10.4 million in February 2025, in accordance with paperwork in a lawsuit filed by a money advance firm in January.
“Jeremy was dancing,” a supply acquainted with the deal stated. “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 industrial is probably not a shock. Bureaucratic quagmires are half and parcel of growing within the Hamptons.
“The cities are usually not straightforward,” Breitenbach stated.
Quickly after the shut, Ruschmeyer’s encountered points, together with the lack of its liquor license.
After Morton exited the challenge in 2021, the remaining possession group, now led by Castellana, started procuring the location.
“Throughout my involvement in 2021, Ruschmeyer’s carried out very properly and I’m pleased with the momentum created,” Morton stated. “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 attain a brief time period revenue by promoting $10 hamburgers and salads after a $14,000,000.00 funding, however relatively 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 challenge is approach too giant,” one planning board member stated on the time. “There are such a lot of completely 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 concerning 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 stated, shocked, at a November assembly. “It’s a giant ask. It’s an enormous development challenge. Is that this what we’re sticking with?”
Sure, Morton informed them.
Months later, when he turned the keys over to Mavik, he had modified his tune.
“The challenge required plenty of approvals and entitlements, and sadly these approvals weren’t obtained throughout the timeframe required by our financing,” he stated in a press release.
Money troubles
Morton’s troubles, although, appear to derive from greater than troublesome approval processes.
At his challenge at 825 Previous Sag Harbor Highway, 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 instances earlier than being eliminated. Sources acquainted with the challenge stated work stalled after Morton didn’t pay contractors.
“Melvin was like ‘What the hell, why is that this taking so lengthy?’” the supply stated.
A supply acquainted with Morton’s Sag Harbor challenge stated that the monetary stress from residential initiatives not closing impacted his skill to fund pre-development prices within the retail funding. Morton stated this was “not factual in any approach” and that he nor different members of the investor group “have been required to offer ongoing funding of this property on this approach, all capital got here from curiosity reserve and rental revenue.”
For the subsequent 12 months, Morton started the scramble of his life. He mortgaged his remaining properties and took out ultra-short time period loans, in accordance 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 almost $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 offered, the one at 126 Lengthy Lane. He additionally received $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 accordance 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 accordance 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 strategy of being remedied.
Two months later, the MW Group, traders within the Sag Harbor retail nook, filed an $850,000 collateral mortgage on the identical residence.
In Might, a court docket dominated that Merely Funding had the precise to Morton’s possession pursuits in eight completely different entities. It’s not clear how helpful these are, as Morton’s collectors proceed to battle over his portfolio’s scraps. “Merely Funding, as a part of a set technique, took possession of closed particular function entity firms which are irrelevant to any everyday 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 accordance with property information.
Even earlier than the closing, Morton started to fundraise for 3 new initiatives, in accordance with investor paperwork shared with TRD.
In October, he closed on one, an East Hampton lot, for $3 million.
The paperwork challenge a 60 p.c return.
