Two Manhattan financiers got into a bidding war over a one-foot-wide strip of beach property, pushing the original auction price of $10 all the way to $120,000.

The one-foot-wide parcel of land runs 1,885 feet long through the town of East Hampton, N.Y., from Montauk Highway to the Atlantic Ocean.

The strip lies between Mitchell Dunes Lane and Raymond Lane in the hamlet of Napeague.

Marc Helie emerged as the winner. Newsday reports that he lists his employer as Chevalier Investments, LLC, in Manhattan,

His property sits on the beach, while the losing bidder, Kyle N. Cruz, has property behind him closer to the highway.

Newsday reports that Cruz is a managing director at Centerbridge Partners LP in Manhattan.

In order to reach the ocean beach, he would have to trespass on Helie’s property.

“Okay, so two guys don’t like each other. Isn’t that what free enterprise is all about?” Suffolk County’s property manager Wayne Thompson told the Star in a telephone interview.

Thompson added that he wasn’t aware of any personal differences between the two.

“We kind of stay out of personality problems,” the property manager said.

Suffolk County acquired the wooded ribbon of land in 2003 for nonpayment of taxes.

Thompson said the property was offered to any of six adjoining land owners in Napeague for $10.

Four of the owners didn’t respond to the offer to submit a bid.

However, Helie and Cruz showed up with cheques for $1,500 on May 30, setting off a furious bidding war that escalated.

Heli represented himself, while Cruz was represented by an attorney.

Cruz’s last bid was $115,000, which was topped by Heli.

Thompson wasn’t directly involved in the bidding process but was kept apprised of it as it heated up.

He said he suspects one didn’t want the other one to be able to walk over that one foot to get to the beach, even though the area is overgrown with brush and dwarf pines.

“Maybe the guy will fence it off, and say, ‘Don’t come on my property,’ Thompson said.

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Thompson said the $120,000 windfall will be put into the public fund to support roads, police and affordable housing.

Neither of the two bidders was willing to comment.

The Suffolk County Legislature’s finance committee voted 5-0 to recommend the full legislature accept the bid when it meets next week.