When the sale of a vacant seaside lot on North County Road recorded Monday at $37.29 million, it capped a jaw-dropping week of Palm Beach real estate transactions that totaled more than $200 million, documented by the prices filed with the deeds at the courthouse.
And the bulk of those dollars came from just four sales, all previously reported by the Daily News. The ball started rolling with the deal that set a new town record -- the $105-million whopper at 1295 S. Ocean Blvd., the ocean-to-lake estate that belonged to the late investment-firm heiress Terry Allen Kramer.
On the heels of that sale came deals recorded last week at $40.87 million for a never-lived-in beachfront mansion at 1071 N. Ocean Blvd.; and at $17.3 million for a renovated lakefront house built in 1957 at 555 Island Drive.
Lawrence A. Moens Associates was involved in three of those four sales, while Douglas Elliman Real Estate took part in two.
The sale of the 2-acre lot at 525 N. County Road always would have been notable for more than just its price. The land once belonged to President Donald Trump, who in 2008 sold it for $95 million as part of a larger estate to Russian fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, more than eight years before Trump took office. In 2016, Rybolovlev subdivided the land into three lots of about equal size. The deal recorded Monday brought the Russian's total sales to $108.74 million.
The deed recorded this week identified the lot's buyer as ACPB LLC, a Delaware-registered limited liability company with an address in care of the West Palm Beach law firm of Kochman & Ziska.
Because of Delaware's strict corporate privacy laws, no other information about anyone associated with the buyer's ownership was available in public records, and real estate attorney Maura Ziska of Kochman & Ziska declined to comment. The buyer owns no other property in Palm Beach County, a search of online records showed.
>> RELATED: Deeds say company paid $105 million in record-setting sale
Having more than $200 million worth of real estate change hands within eight days is "extraordinary," said broker John D. Pinson, a former president of the Palm Beach Board of Realtors and owner of an eponymous real estate agency on the island.
"This just shows the strength of our local market," Pinson said.
He acknowledged that the recent sales were especially welcome after what had been a long lull in the Palm Beach market for larger sales. But he said transactions often pick up in late summer, especially if a run of sales starts a domino effect among buyers.
"Once (sales) start popping (would-be buyers) start getting anxious and say: 'I better buy that property that I had my eye on. If I don't buy it now, I'll be kicking myself years from now,'" Pinson said.
Broker Lawrence Moens handled both sides of the lot sale on North County Road, according to records in the Palm Beach Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service. Moens couldn't be reached for comment, and a Rybolovlev spokesman declined to discuss the deal.
Moens also represented the buyer, Wemio LLC -- a Delaware-based limited liability company -- in the Kramer estate sale opposite a team of Douglas Elliman listing agents: Gary Pohrer, Ashley McIntosh, Cara Coniglio McClure, Lisa Wilkinson and Adam McPherson.
In the sale on North Ocean Boulevard, a Douglas Elliman team of McIntosh, Pohrer and Vince Spadea represented the seller, a trust affiliated with Vahan and Danielle Gureghian. Moens acted on behalf of the buyer, a Florida-registered limited liability company named Reiwa LLC.
And in the Island Drive sale, agents Liza Pulitzer and Whitney McGurk of Brown Harris Stevens represented the buyers, C. Payson Coleman and his daughter, Avery Coleman Keller, who acted as trustees of a trust. The sellers were Brittain "Britty" Bardes Damgard, acting as trustee of a trust in her name, and her husband, John Damgard. Pulitzer and McGurk shared the listing with agent Crista Ryan of Tina Fanjul Associates.
This week, meanwhile, saw the closings of two additional deals with recorded prices topping $12 million. Moens was the sole broker involved in the $12.28 million sale of an oceanfront house at 1300 N. Ocean Blvd., sold by Tim Gannon, who co-founded Outback Steakhouse. Gannon, a member of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, today resides on Nightingale Trail, property records show. Palm Beachers Laurence and Molly Austin bought the property, swapping their house on Nightingale Trail for Gannon's..
And across town, another beachfront house, at 1620 S. Ocean Blvd., sold for $12.65 million. The sellers, Eileen and Laurence "Buzzy" Abramson, were represented by agents Dana Koch and Paulette Koch of the Corcoran Group. Agent Jana R. Scarpa of William Raveis South Florida acted on behalf of the buyers, Anthony and Lynda Lomangino.
Tally all those deals -- plus smaller ones that also have closed -- and more than $225 million has changed hands since the sale of the Kramer estate entered courthouse records July 1. And two more properties remain under contract at prices above $17 million each, according to the local multiple listing service.
It all has real estate observers asking: Just how hot is this summer going to be?
By Darrell Hofheinz, The Palm Beach Post, Fla