By Darrell Hofheinz
Daily News Home and Loggia Editor
Updated: 7:48 p.m. Thursday, May 10, 2012
Posted: 6:57 p.m. Thursday, May 10, 2012
A couple of residential sales were recorded late last month that show how the
gap between listed prices and sales prices has tightened of late for some
properties in Palm Beach.
Both of the sales in question were on the near North End, a few streets north
of Royal Poinciana Way.
■ Sotheby’s International Realty handled both sides of a deal for a
three-bedroom townhome at 211 Atlantic Ave., which had originally been
listed at $2.75 million, a price later dropped to $2.55 million. The
property ended up changing hands late last month for a recorded $2.3
million. The townhome has 4,286 square feet of living space, inside and out.
Richard D. and Marguerite Greenfield sold the townhouse to Dr. James Golleher
and his wife, Sandra, whose address was listed as Searcy, Ark., on the deed
recorded April 26 by the Palm Beach County clerk’s office. Agent Mary Boykin
represented the Gollehers, who own another townhome on Everglades Avenue,
according to property records.
Agent Carole Ruhlman had listed the Atlantic Avenue property for the
Greenfields and represented them when they bought a double condominium
measuring about 4,000 square feet in West Palm Beach’s Trump Plaza last
July, property records show. Agent Steve Davis of the Corcoran Group was on
the seller’s side of that $1.1 million deal.
■ Racquel Lambert sold her four-bedroom house built in 2002 at 240 Seminole
Ave. for a recorded $2.1 million. With a little more than 4,300 “total”
square feet, the house had been co-listed for sale at $2.295 million by
agents Colleen Jackson-Hanson and John M. Campbell of the Corcoran Group.
Broker Linda Gary of Linda A. Gary Real Estate acted on behalf of buyers,
which were listed as two revocable trusts on the deed recorded April 27. Dr.
Arthur S. Lieberman served as trustee of a trust in his name, while his
wife, Rochelle G. Lieberman, was the trustee of a trust in her name. The
Liebermans are from Bloomfield Hills, Mich., according to the deed, and
public records show that they do not own any other property here.
■
Varney at The Colony — Interior decorator and longtime Shiny
Sheet columnist Carleton Varney can add The Colony to the list of Palm
Beach hotels in which he will have left his design mark.
The Colony announced this week that it has retained Varney and his company,
Dorothy Draper Co., to “re-imagine” the look of many of the rooms and
suites on the historic resort’s fifth floor.
Varney, who owns a residence on the island, is president and owner of the
venerable design firm headquartered in New York City. He also writes the
weekly “Your Family Decorator” column for the Shiny Sheet.
Varney’s career has included extensive decorating projects at The Breakers and
The Brazilian Court, as well as The Waldorf Towers and The Plaza Hotel in
New York. His firm is the decorator on record for The Greenbrier in White
Sulphur Springs, W.Va., and Grand Hotel on Michigan’s Mackinac Island, among
many other commissions.
He also maintains a roster of private clients, including James M. and Charlene
Nederlander, for whom he has decorated a number of homes, including the
couple’s Palm Beach vacation retreats.
Colony General Manager Roger Everingham says he has asked Varney to create
room-by-room designs that are “Palm Beach-specific for our sophisticated
guests.”
Varney, meanwhile, calls The Colony an “iconic” hotel and is already working
on designs for the project. “The Palm Beach look is not a Caribbean-island
look. The colors in Palm Beach are not ‘hard’ colors, because the natural
light is softer,” he says. “I want the rooms to look like you are checking
into a Palm Beach guest house — very residential, with a softly elegant and
gentle look. But of course, it’s going to be colorful.”
Varney’s team on the project will include Brinsley Matthews, the firm’s
director of design and
operations.
■
Free report — Information is power, say real estate agents Mimi Vail
and Jason T. Corrigan of Fite Shavell Associates. And toward that end,
they’ve teamed up to produce a timely news-you-can-use newsletter packed
with sales data gleaned from all of the brokers who use the Palm Beach Board
of Realtors Multiple Listings Service.