$12.5 million home sale among top Palm Beach real estate transactions for season
The 2007-08 real estate season was the age of the mega-sale:
By those standards, any other island season would be a slouch, but 2008-09 suffered the one-two punch of the effects of the real estate bust and the unraveling of the Bernard Madoff scandal, which prompted a handful of investors to sell their local homes.
Here's a sampling of some of the heftiest sales this season:
Vacant land
Sold for: $10.4 million on Oct. 1.
Asking price: about $11 million
Cable television entrepreneur John Scarpa bought No. 516 in 2005 for about $8 million with the idea of building a spec house on the vacant waterfront property.
But Scarpa's wife, Jana Scarpa of Barclays International Realty, also listed the half-acre property for sale in the $11 million range, and Robert and Amy Feldman of
The sale set a new record for "price per front foot" for land across the street from the ocean, said Dana Koch of The Corcoran Group, who represented the Feldmans in the sale.
Vacant land
Sold for: $11.75 million on Oct. 2
Asking price: $13.4 million
An Ohio limited liability company called 700 South Ocean sold this vacant waterfront piece of land to builder Paul Wittman and his partner, tabloid titan Peter Callahan, who planned to build a 10,000-square-foot Bermuda-style spec house on it.
The property encompasses about 27,000 square feet and includes a tunnel under
Wally Turner of Sotheby's represented both the buyer and seller.
Single family home
Sold for: $9.68 million on Oct. 17
Asking price: $10.9 million
Former Innkeepers USA Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Fisher and his wife, Frances, sold the landmarked Casa Coral home to Margaret Sinclair and her husband, Christopher A. Sinclair, the former CEO and chairman of Pepsi-Cola.
The 9,158-square-foot Mediterranean-style home was designed by John Volk in 1927 for Alfred Feltman, of
The main residence has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and three half-baths.
The backyard is graced with fountains, a 44-foot lap pool and a guest house with two bedrooms and a four-car garage.
Corcoran Group broker Jim McCann represented the Fishers in the sale, and Bradford P. Miller of Bradford P. Miller Real Estate brought the Sinclairs to the table.
756 Slope Trail
Single family home
Sold for: $5.96 million on Feb. 5
Asking price: $7.99 million
Developer George L. Ford III built this 7,300-square-foot Mediterranean-style home and sold it to Christopher Dacamara Orthwein, son of Adolphus Busch Orthwein, former vice president of operations for Anheuser Busch Cos. The five-bedroom, 6 1/2-bath residence is situated atop a hill next to the town's historic Art Deco-style water building, and it overlooks the Palm Beach Country Club golf course.
Ford bought the property in 2004 for $1.83 million from the estate of former owner Oleda Casscells. At the time, it contained a Japanese-style house designed by Howard Major. That home was not landmarked and was torn down.
Michael Montgomery, of Jeffrey A. Cloninger & Associates Inc., represented Orthwein in the sale, and Scott Gordon, of Fite Shavell & Associates, represented Ford in the sale.
Single-family home
Sold for: $12.5 million on March 1
Asking price: $13.9 million
Two prospective buyer bid over
The 10,111-square-foot, two-story
Paulette Koch, of the Corcoran Group, represented Grand Estates, and her son, Dana Koch, also of Corcoran, represented Abramson.