Spec developer Bruce Malasky sells Palm Beach mansion for $44M

Developer Bruce Malasky sold a non-waterfront Palm Beach spec mansion for $43.7 million.

Records show Malasky sold the house at 205 Via Tortuga to the Mijko Trust, with attorney Sharon Trulock signing on behalf of the buyers. The true buyers are hidden. 

Jim McCann of Premier Estate Properties had the listing, and Jeremy Stewart of Park View Realty brought the buyers.

The buyers are European, a source confirmed. Stewart declined to comment on the buyers’ identity, saying only that they were from overseas, planned to be seasonal residents, and had been shopping for a Palm Beach house for several years. 

“This was a challenging deal over the course of a couple of years,” he said. “They were looking for a very particular property.”

Specifically, they wanted new construction, which is in short supply in Palm Beach. Malaksy is among the few spec developers with projects on the island. He bought the 0.8-acre Via Tortuga property for $9.4 million in 2020, records show. 

Malasky completed the 11,000-square-foot mansion earlier this year, the listing shows. The house has seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, two half-bathrooms, a pool and a guest house. The non-waterfront home is in the Phipps Estates section, an area that once belonged to Carnegie Steel’s Phipps family.  

Malasky listed it for $48 million in April, Redfin shows. 

The sale marks the latest deal to close in a season agents have characterized as delayed and inconsistent. It follows Palm Beach’s most expensive home, Tarpon Island, listed for $187.5 million, finding a buyer in March.

Last month, Ideavillage founder and CEO Anand Khubani sold an oceanfront lot for $85 million. Also last month, designer and real estate investor Tommy Hilfiger sold a lakefront house for $28 million.  

Despite the slower pace of deals, eight-figure-and-up sales keep closing. 

Said Stewart: “These billionaires are moving to Palm Beach nonstop.”