If you’re in the market for a Palm Beach house priced at around $40 million, your options expanded yet again last week in the local multiple listing service.
The newest entry in that price category, a lakefront house at 390 N. Lake Way, is especially notable because it has never been lived in — a rarity, indeed, these days. Agent Jim McCann of the Corcoran Group late last week listed the house, developed on speculation, for sale furnished with a turnkey price of $37.9 million.
Crews working for contractor Mark Pulte of Boca Raton-based Mark Timothy Inc. are putting the final touches on the 12,655-square-foot residence, with its modified Georgian-style architecture.
It’s unclear from property records who is bankrolling the project, and McCann and Pulte aren’t commenting. But reliable word on the street links the house to real estate investor Pat Carney of Palm Beach. Carney, who couldn’t be reached, has developed a number of spec houses over the past few years. They include properties in Manalapan, including the house motivational speaker Tony Robbins bought for a recorded $24.75 million in 2013.
Measuring a little less than three-quarters of an acre, the North Lake Way property offers 130 feet of waterfront and a higher-than-average elevation off Sanford Avenue above the Lake Trail.
“It’s a pristine location, three streets north of Wells Road. It’s got beautiful views,” McCann says, including water vistas from four of the five bedrooms.
The views also include a dock that has been extended into water reaching a depth of 10½ feet at low tide.
The amenity list is what you’d expect from such a house — first and second-floor master suites, an open plan, high-end finishes with a contemporary feel, a full-house generator, impact-resistant windows and the like. Interiors are by Marc-Michaels Interior Design of Winter Park.
The house replaced one built in 1938 and sold privately in late 2012 for $9.165 million by E. John Rosenwald Jr., who retired as vice chairman of the old Bear Stearns Cos., and his wife, Patricia. Broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates represented the sellers, and McCann acted for the buyer, recorded on the deed as a limited liability company named after the property’s address.
The house enjoys a key selling point in a town where new houses are as scarce as a parking space on Worth Avenue at the height of the season. “Most people are looking at a big renovation or at buying a house and tearing it down. The buyer won’t have to go through that,” McCann says.
Carney, by the way, also is said to be behind a new oceanfront spec house underway at 1695 N. Ocean Way, six lots south of the inlet. Woolems Inc. is the contractor for that project.
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A pair of notable houses — Shopping mall king Alfred Taubman’s death last week brought to mind the striking house that noted modernist architect Richard Meier designed for him in 1977 on a lot facing the Lake Worth Lagoon at 958 N. Lake Way.
With its white geometric-block design, Taubman christened the house “Camelot.” Its construction sparked a civil lawsuit filed by Taubman against the architect and others, claiming that structural defects related to the design resulted in rain leakage. A jury ruled largely in Taubman’s favor in 1987 against Meier’s firm, according to published reports. The late builder Robert Gottfried and a roofing company were exonerated.
Real estate developer David Mack and his wife, Sondra, bought the house for $3.5 million in 1992 and expanded it. In 2009, the Macks argued that the house — the architect’s only commission ever built in Palm Beach — didn’t warrant landmark protection, despite the recommendation of the Landmarks Commission via a 4-3 vote.
The Town Council, however, ultimately voted 4-1 in favor of the Macks and withheld landmark status. The Macks still own the house, five lots north of the Palm Beach Country Club.
Taubman and wife Judith, whom he married in 1982, ended up moving across town to Collado Hueco, a circa-1925 landmarked house he bought in 1989 for $5.5 million. Designed by noted society architect Addison Mizner, the ocean-to-lake estate on the South End’s Billionaires Row comprises 3.2 acres at 1820 S. Ocean Blvd. With its Mediterranean-style architecture, the house certainly looked nothing like their previous residence.
In 2013, Alfred Taubman, as trustee of a revocable trust in his name, transferred ownership of the house to a Delaware-registered limited liability company with a mailing address in Bloomfield, Mich., where he also had a home. That company’s name, AAT-PB LLC, reflects his initials — and those of the town where he spent many winters, far removed from the snow of his native Michigan.
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Noticed – That crews broke ground last week on Palazzo Villas, four luxury townhouses planned for 215 Brazilian Ave., just west of South County Road. The project won town approval a year ago for the site of the old Plaza Inn. But the developers blamed paperwork problems for the delay in starting construction.
With the walls soon to go up, the prices have risen, too: The two exterior units, which were marketed, pre-construction, at $6.75 million, are now selling at $7.795 million; prices for the two interior units jumped from $6.25 million to $7.195 million. Chris Deitz of Fite Shavell Associates is the listing agent.
The developers also have inked a contract for a new sales center in Suite 219 at 251 Royal Palm Way, reports developer Josh McAlees, who is working on the project with partner Bryan J. Mylett. Brazilian businessman Arnaldo Cunha Campos also is involved. They expect construction to take about 14 months, and marketing will ramp up as the project progresses.
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Darrell Hofheinz writes about real estate and edits Home Loggia. He welcomes news items about Palm Beach real estate for this column. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com or call 820-3831.