By Darrell Hofheinz, Palm Beach Daily News
When a trust bought an ocean-to-lake estate at 1840 S. Ocean Blvd. in June, the recorded price was an eye-popping $109.63 million, previously reported by the Palm Beach Daily News as the second-priciest-ever sale in town.
But nearly as remarkable as the price was the amount of the loan secured by a mortgage filed simultaneously with the deed. At $65.78 million, the mortgage total was notable in its own right.
And thanks to the latest monthly mortgage report issued by the Rabideau Klein Law Firm, we learned that mortgage was the most expensive recorded at the Palm Beach County Courthouse during June.
The mortgage — issued by UBS Bank USA — held another distinction, too: “For the first time in the history of this Palm Beach County mortgage brief, the largest mortgage of the month was residential rather than commercial,” said the Million Dollar Mortgages report’s summary.
The Palm Beach law firm has published the report since at least 2014, said attorney Guy Rabideau. The reports are compiled from public records at the county courthouse.
Trailing the mortgage at 1840 S. Ocean Blvd. was another recorded in June at $62.47 million, issued by Avenir Development LLC to Avenir Holdings LLC. The latter is developing the Avenir mixed-use project in Palm Beach Gardens and just bought 445 acres on Coconut Boulevard for $69.41 million, the report said.
Back in Palm Beach, attorney Ronald S. Kochman of Kochman & Ziska in West Palm Beach signed the 30-year mortgage, acting in his professional role as trustee of the 1840 South Ocean Trust. The trust bought the 2.66 acre property from a trust linked to Dr. Ernst Langner of Hamburg, Germany, who shared the estate with wife Nataly. Trusts are private entities, and information about anyone else associated with the buyer’s side of the sale has not been made public.
Kochman has grown accustomed to signing high-dollar mortgages this year. In May, again in his role as trustee, he attached his name to a $60 million, 30-year mortgage issued by a lending arm of Deutsche Bank and recorded in conjunction with the sale of an oceanfront estate at 1341 S. Ocean Blvd. In that deal, documented at $95 million, the 1341 South Ocean Boulevard Trust bought the estate of 2 acres from a realty trust associated with businessman Edward G. Watkins and wife Karen.
Also in May, Kochman signed a $50 million mortgage as trustee of the 2000 S. Ocean Trust, the entity through with billionaire Jim Clark bought the former Ziff family estate at 2000 S. Ocean Blvd. in Manalapan in March for a recorded $94.17 million. The Deutsche Bank lender — DB Private Wealth Mortgage Ltd. — issued the mortgage.
BrokerLawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates handled both sides of the sales of the two Palm Beach estates and the property in Manalapan.
Kochman declined to comment, and Moens couldn’t be reached.