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September 20

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A t t h e D e s k o f :J e f f r e y C o l l é

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Jeffrey Collé didn’t always build multimillion-dollar estates: The high-end Hamptons developer is a third-generation carpenter who started his career as a

union man. But in the 34 years since Collé started his own company, he’s carved out a niche for custom-designed Hamptons spec homes, building and renovat-ing properties for the likes of Donna Karan, Billy Joel and Alec Baldwin. Now, after a two-year break from building, he’s back in the game, and recently completed a spec house in Wainscott, which is on the market for $9.99 million. He’s also in the midst of developing a $10.99 million home in Water Mill on the site of the historic Halsey family farmhouse. (Collé has more in the pipeline in the $8 to $12 million range, which he called the market’s new “sweet spot.”) In addition, he’s still mar-keting the Stanford White–designed home that he revamped in East Hampton, which has been on the market for two years and is listed for $29.99 million. Collé’s own Wainscott house has a home office overlooking his pool — which, he says, “the dogs actually use more than I do.” By Jill NooNaN

Collé, 60, bought this Knicks game ball about 15 years ago. It’s signed by all of the players on the 1973 championship team, includ-ing basketball legends Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Bill Bradley and Dave DeBusschere.

A photo of a 15'9" crocodile that was killed at famed photographer Peter Beard’s ranch in Kenya in 1968. The reptile, Collé said, was “menacing” the townspeople. The developer first met Beard at the Shagwong Tavern in Montauk in the 1960s and be-came friends with him in the 1980s.

Collé bought these framed Indian arrowheads in Tellu-ride, Colo., about 20 years ago. He’s been collecting them and other artifacts since he was as a kid in Mass-apequa, on Long Island, but said he’s never actually found one himself.

Boxing legend Muham-mad Ali signed these gloves “The Greatest” for Collé at a fund-raiser the developer helped organize for the late Ted Kennedy in the 1990s.

A wedding photo of Collé’s par-ents. The two met when his fa-ther, a sergeant stationed at the Panama Canal during World War II, went home with an army friend for the weekend during boot camp and met his sister.

This French chalked pan-eling, made of quarter-sawn oak, is signature Col-lé. He is known for hand-selecting pricey materials for his projects.

This mini cash register belonged to Howard Gittis, who Collé called his “best friend.” Gittis, a longtime advi-sor to business mogul Ron Perelman, was also Collé’s main business part-ner. He provided the financial backing for some of Collé’s first big Hamptons deals. Collé carries around a nickel that was jammed in the slot of the reg-ister, which was given to him by Git-tis’s widow after he died in 2007.

A photograph of Collé with his close friend, the late Stephan Weiss, who was married to fash-ion designer Donna Karan. Col-lé — who partnered with Weiss and used to ride motorcycles with him — says he also renovat-ed and expanded Weiss’s West Village art studio, which Karan turned into the Center for Urban Zen after Weiss died in 2001.

Collé doesn’t have children, but the animal and wildlife lover shares his house with his English springer span-iels, Regis and Oliver. His girlfriend, Russian hand model Yana Zinovyeva, is also there several days a week.

A photograph with singer Billy Joel and actor Alec Baldwin at a Col-lé-hosted Thanksgiving. Collé re-stored and expanded two Amagan-sett homes — a former fisherman’s shack and an old farmhouse — for Baldwin. He also renovated an old boathouse on Shelter Island for a recording studio for Joel. “It’s where he recorded the River of Dreams album,” Collé says.

Project blueprints. Collé says he personally designs all of his proj-ects and forgoes hiring an archi-tect (he has a licensed engineer sign off instead). The veteran de-veloper does have building in his blood: His grandfather was a car-penter, as was his father. Rather than go to college, Collé joined the carpentry union after high school, noting with a smile that he was “never a fan of school.”