| Palm Beach mansion market remains hot Click-2-Listen By Jeff Ostrowski Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Monday, March 17, 2008 There's a flurry of activity in Palm Beach's stratospheric mansion market. After two years of marketing, Donald Trump has cut the price of his listing at 515 N. County Road from $125 million to $100 million. Trump also changed agents, swapping Cristina Condon of Sotheby's International Realty for Lawrence Moens. And The Donald says he wants to build a luxe hotel at the property, a proposal town leaders oppose. Meantime, billionaire businessman and philanthropist Sidney Kimmel put his estate at 1236 S. Ocean Blvd. on the market for $81.5 million, making it the second-priciest listing on the island. So what do you get for these lofty prices? In the case of Trump's 6-acre property, there's 475 feet of beachfront and a 48-car garage. Kimmel's estate comes with five lushly landscaped acres and 300 feet of ocean frontage. The 32,000-square-foot home was designed by Bill Gates' architect. The living room includes 26-foot ceilings and 20-foot-high glass panels that disappear into the floor at the push of a button. There's also a wine cellar, pool, waterfalls, staff quarters and an air chiller and 27-zone AC - and plenty of airplane noise, given the estate's location just south of Southern Boulevard. Kimmel's agents, Paulette and Dana Koch of Corcoran Group, led agents and reporters on a tour of the house earlier this month. Brokers from as far away as Miami and Fort Lauderdale came to check out the estate, and they seemed impressed. "I think the value's there," said Tim Elmes of SOL Sotheby's International Realty in Fort Lauderdale. "The place is built like a resort." If either Kimmel or Trump get their asking price, they'll top the Palm Beach record of $70 million, which Ron Perelman's place fetched in 2004. Kimmel is founder and chairman of Jones Apparel Group (NYSE: JNY). The hefty asking prices by Kimmel and Trump come as little surprise. Palm Beach has been unscathed by the downturn gripping most of the county. A home at 589 N. County Road recently sold for an undisclosed price; the manse was listed at $47 million. Palm Beach is one place where prices are still rising, but it's not the only market to buck the national housing downturn. Homes are still appreciating in the New York metro area and in San Francisco and San Jose, Calif., according to the National Association of Realtors. And many markets that missed the housing boom are booming now. Springfield, Ill., Cedar Falls, Iowa, Amarillo, Texas, and Topeka, Kan., saw double-digit increases in 2007. In all, NAR says, 73 of the nation's 150 metro areas saw prices rise, although many of those areas were small markets. So what does that do for the oft-repeated theory that the nattering nabobs of negativism in the news media are to blame for the housing downturn? Do buyers in Palm Beach, New York and San Francisco not watch CNN or read The Wall Street Journal? Or perhaps home prices aren't decided by headlines but by local supply and demand and regional economic conditions? Billionaire Stephen Garofalo has a thing for doing deals with big-name golfers. In 2006, he sold his Jupiter Island home to Tiger Woods for $38 million. And last month, he paid Greg Norman Golf Co. $2.65 million for a 9,000-square-foot office building at 501 N. A1A in Jupiter. Bill Reis of Corcoran Group represented the seller. |