Michael Swerdlow unloads Keys estate for $13.1M

Palm Harbor in Islamorada
Palm Harbor in Islamorada

Real estate developer Michael Swerdlow, a principal of the Coconut Grove-based development company the Swerdlow Group, has sold his oceanfront Islamorada estate for $13.1 million, The Real Deal has learned.

The sale, which closed on May 22, was brokered by Kelly Shaw of American Caribbean Real Estate.

Known as Palm Harbor, the 6.5-acre property at 80999 Old Highway is located on Upper Matecumbe Key, just south of Islamorada’s small central business district. The primary residence on the estate was built in 1996 and has four bedrooms and 5-and-a-half bathrooms. A separate two-bedroom/two-bath guest house also sits on the property.

Palm Harbor’s expansive tropical gardens were designed by well-known landscape architect Raymond Jungles. The 7,522 square-foot estate’s other amenities include a pool, spa, boat basin and private beach, according to the Realtor.com listing for the property. Photos of the property also show a lagoon-front tiki hut and a wooden walkway along the waterfront.

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Swerdlow, the original developer of Biscayne Landing in the city of North Miami, sold Palm Harbor along with wife Sherie to Timothy and Charene Murray. The address listed on the sales deed for the Murrays is the same as the Swerdlow Group headquarters in Coconut Grove. However, the sales agent Shaw, while declining to provide any other information on the Murrays, told TRD that the couple is not associated with the development company.

The Swerdlows bought the property in 1994 for $1,112,000, according to the Monroe County property appraiser’s site.

Palm Harbor was originally listed in late 2013 for $16 million.

Another multi-million dollar home in the Keys just went in the market last month, for $14.5 million. The estate is owned by the billionaire founder of a hedge fund Paul Tudor Jones II, who founded the Tudor Investment Corp. The home, at at 80291 Overseas Highway, sits on a sizable 6.5-acre lot on the bayfront side of the island. It is surrounded by gardens, a swimming pool, a tennis court and waterfront decks, according to Realtor.com. The property is being listed by Cheri Tindall of Sotheby’s International Realty.