By Darrell Hofheinz, Palm Beach Daily News
An oceanfront estate down the street from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club has changed hands in Palm Beach for $51.42 million — or more than twice the recorded price the estate fetched when it last sold in 2020 during the early days of the island’s pandemic-sparked real estate boom. The latest sold price was reported April 25 in the multiple listing service.
Completed in 2015 as a custom home, the house at 516 S. Ocean Blvd. was renovated and expanded after it sold for a recorded $24.24 million in June 2020.
In the 2020 transaction, a trust affiliated with merchant banker and commercial real estate kingpin Andrew L Farkas was on the buyer’s side, records show.
No deed had recorded as of late afternoon on April 25, so the new owner has not yet been identified in public records. It’s also unclear if the price reported in the MLS will match the one expected to be recorded at the Palm Beach County Courthouse.
The sale is the second transaction to close at more than $50 million in the same block within a month. In late March, a mansion two lots to the south sold for $73 million in an off-market transaction, as previously reported by the Palm Beach Daily News.
The seven-bedroom house stands on a lot of a little more than half an acre in the Estate Section.
The house has 11,489 square feet of living space, inside and out. Facing about 101 feet of beach across the coastal road, the property is between Worth Avenue and the point where South County Road joins South Ocean Boulevard. The house stands about 1½ miles north of Mar-a-Lago, placing it outside the security zone that closes to through-traffic when the president is in residence at his private club.
Agents Dana Koch and Paulette Koch of the Corcoran Group were the listing agents. They put the property on the market with a price tag of $60 million in mid-December, and by early March, they had reduced the price to $57.5 million, the MLS shows. The buyer had the house under contract by April 10.
Broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates handled the buyer’s side of the transaction, according to the MLS.
Dana Koch declined to comment. Farkas and Moens could not immediately be reached.
Palm Beach attorney Guy Rabideau serves as trustee of Farkas’s 516SOB Trust, property records show. Rabideau also declined to comment.
The Mediterranean-style house house’s layout includes an oceanside living room with a gas fireplace, a paneled library with a view of the sea, an entertainment room, and a formal dining room, according to the sales listing.
“Beachside enjoyment is elevated with covered loggias overlooking both the ocean and the pool, an expansive heated pool with a built-in spa, a cabana with a bath, and a shaded patio for poolside dining,” the Corcoran sales listing said.
Other amenities include an elevator, a full-house generator and two laundry rooms.
Michael Perry of MP Design & Architecture designed the residence, which was built by Palm Beach contractor Tim Givens Building & Remodeling. After the 2020 sale, Perry returned to the house to design an addition and renovation that added two bedrooms — one above the family room and the other above the three-car garage.
Farkas founded New York City-based Island Capital Group LLC in May 2003 and serves as its managing member, chairman and CEO. The firm’s website describes the company as an international merchant-banking firm that specializes in real-estate investing, commercial real-estate loans, asset management and real estate securities as well as “special situations.” The company often targets distressed real estate, according to published reports.
Farkas previously founded and served as chairman and CEO of Insignia Financial Group Inc., a global real estate services company that merged with CB Richard Ellis in July 2003.
In the 2020 sale of the house, agent Jim McCann of Premier Estate Properties represented Farkas’s interests and that of the sellers, former Matel and PepsiCo CEO Christopher A. Sinclair and his wife, Margaret. The Sinclairs had paid $8.7 million for the lot when it was vacant in July 2013 and then built their custom home there, records show.
The Sinclairs’ sale to Farkas’ trust closed in June 2020, about three months after Palm Beach officials enacted their first emergency order related to the coronavirus health crisis. Over the next 18 months, a real estate-buying frenzy overtook Palm Beach, as buyers — often from other states — sought warm-weather refuges, spurred by Florida’s tax advantages and the town’s notable architecture, security and natural beauty. The laws of supply and demand drove asking prices and home values up, and they have since remained sharply elevated over pre-pandemic levels.
In 2013, when the town’s Architectural Commission approved plans for the house after requesting minor changes, Commissioner Kenn Karakul praised the design.
“It’s going to be a great addition to Palm Beach,” Karakul said at the time.
The other oceanfront property to sell since the end of March in the same block was an oceanfront estate at 530 S. Ocean Blvd., which changed hands for $73 million, a price confirmed at the time by the Palm Beach Daily News. Billionaire digital entrepreneur Ric Elias and his wife, Brenda, parted with their eight-bedroom mansion. Built in 2018 and owned by a limited liability company, the house at No. 530 has 14,908 square feet of living space, inside and out, including a two-bedroom staff area, property records show. Douglas Elliman Real Estate agent Jack Rooney confirmed he represented both sides of the March sale of No. 530 but would not identify his clients or discuss specifics of the transaction.