Former Trump Property Aims to Be Palm Beach’s Most Expensive Ever

(Bloomberg) -- Palm Beach real estate is on a hot streak attributed variously to Covid-19, the SALT tax, and Florida’s own 0% income tax rate.

Now, the thin barrier island’s boom market will face its greatest test yet: on Monday, the Palm Beach Post reported, a fully furnished spec home at 535 North County Road hit the market for $140 million.

If it sells at ask, it would be the most expensive real estate transaction in Palm Beach history.

To date, the record is held by a 70,000-square-foot home on six acres, which sold in 2019 for $111 million. 

This new listing represented by the broker Lawrence Moens sits on two acres and has about 21,000 square feet of interior space.

Moens also represents a $110 million, 28,000-square-foot house, which is set in an arguably more attractive location on so-called “Billionaire’s Row.” It’s been on and off the market for about three years. (Moens didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment.)

“You cannot look back,” says the Corcoran broker Paulette Koch, who’s based in Palm Beach. “You have to look forward. Because there’s a lack of product, and when there’s a lack of inventory [the $140 million house] could easily attain such a price, or close to it.”

The premium, Koch continues, comes from the home’s newness. “This is a property where you can move into it tomorrow,” she says. “There’s a value to that. Buyers in that price category like ease.”

Trump Flip

The property has set records before. Donald Trump bought a six acre lot at a bankruptcy auction in 2004 for around $41 million, and then flipped it four years later to the Russian fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who purchased the land from Trump in 2008 for an unprecedented $95 million. 

After holding onto the property for nine years, Rybolovlev subdivided it and sold the two-acre lot in question for what the Palm Beach Daily News reported as $37 million to Mark Pulte, a real estate developer in Boca Raton. 

After multiple setbacks from Palm Beach’s notoriously strict architectural board, Pulte was given the green light for construction of a home designed by architect Bill Boyle. (Rybolovlev sold the other two lots for a combined $71.35 million.)

Lifestyle Ready

The completed house has nine bedrooms, 12 baths, and seven half-baths. The house sits on the ocean, with 150 feet of shoreline. There’s a large pool, manicured hedges, and a trim green lawn that leads to the beach.

The house isn’t just furnished—it’s stocked, similar to mega-mansions that recently flooded the L.A. market, for a ready-made lifestyle. Listing photos show made beds, walls covered in artwork, shelves filled with tasteful knicknacks, a back-lit bar stocked with wine and spirits, and bathrooms with hand towels ready to go. 

“People want ease,” Koch says. “You know what? Life is short. Remember that. So it’s critical they start enjoying it. That’s why people come here.”