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Sports investor Gerry Cardinale buys $20M Palm Beach teardown
He bought adjacent property for $3.9M in 2014
Gerry Cardinale, one of the biggest dealmakers in sports, bought his Palm Beach next-door neighbor’s teardown for $20 million.
A source confirmed Cardinale is the owner of PB North Ocean Trust, which bought the house at 960 North Ocean Boulevard from Kathleen Belznak, property records show. Belznak is the widow of New Jersey real estate developer Alan Belznak, who died in March, according to his obituary.
Superbroker Lawrence Moens had the listing, and Lilly Leas of Brown Harris Stevens represented the buyer.
The Belznaks bought the North Ocean Boulevard home for $1.2 million in 1993, records show. Built in 1970 and designed by William Ames Bennett, the 4,500-square-foot, five-bedroom house was advertised as a “development opportunity,” according to the listing.
Also this week, Kathleen Belznak closed on a unit in One Watermark Place, a condominium in West Palm Beach, for $8.2 million, according to records. She bought the 5,200-square-foot condo from Sharon and Raymond Milchovich, a retired metals executive.
Records show Cardinale owns the house at 208 Sandpiper Drive, a 0.3-acre property adjacent to the 0.6-acre North Ocean Boulevard teardown. He bought the Sandpiper Drive home for $3.9 million in 2014, according to property records.
Cardinale is the founder and managing partner of RedBird Capital, a New York City-based private investment firm that he launched in 2014 after a 20-year run at Goldman Sachs. Through RedBird, Cardinale has invested in Fenway Sports Group, the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson’s XFL, and LeBron James’ Springhill Company. Via RedBird’s investments, Cardinale holds stakes in iconic teams like the Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, and the Liverpool Football Club, to name a few. RedBird has also invested in Skydance Media, the production company founded by billionaire Larry Ellison’s son David Ellison.
A December profile of Cardinale in Insider described the Rhodes Scholar’s “passion for intellectual property,” as a key driver of his firm’s $7.5 billion portfolio.
Cardinale’s sports and media investments have paid off, and so have his Palm Beach real estate plays. In 2020, a trust linked to Cardinale bought the oceanfront estate at 1285 North Ocean Boulevard for $6.7 million. He flipped the house for $23.5 million in March of last year, records show.
Another Cardinale-linked trust bought the mansion at 7 La Costa Way for $31.8 million that same month, records show. Leas has the listing for the house, which hit the market for $39.9 million in June, Realtor.com shows.
He’s not the only sports mogul involved in island real estate. National Football League team owners are major players in the Palm Beach real estate scene. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft bought a condo on the island for a record $23.8 million in December. Hedge fund billionaire and Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper bought an oceanfront estate for $68.4 million in 2021. Related Companies chairman and Miami Dolphins owner Steve Ross also owns the Reef, a historic North County Road mansion he bought for $31.9 million in 2007.