Builder with unsold “micro mansion” plans another

Luxury home builder Frank McKinney hasn’t yet sold his reduced-price “micro mansion” in Ocean Ridge, but he’s already preparing to build a larger one farther north and priced near $20 million.

McKinney’s initial $3.9 million asking price has dropped to $3.43 million for the 4,087-square-foot house he built at 19 Tropical Drive in Ocean Ridge, an oceanfront community in southeast Palm Beach County.

He designed the three-bedroom, four-bathroom house to serve a segment of the new-home market seeking luxury on a less-than-mansion scale.

The fully furnished house is 325 feet from the Atlantic, so it doesn’t qualify as oceanfront property, but McKinney compensates with eye-opening features, including a living reef aquarium in a 210-gallon tank and sea-glass kitchen countertops that change colors.

McKinney told the Sun-Sentinel that his inability to sell the house sooner is “confounding,” and he called reports of deeply discounted luxury homes in South Florida “concerning.” But he remains confident that consumers are spending more freely as a “Trump Bump” propels the economy.

Indeed, he told the newspaper he expects to start construction by July 1 on a larger “micro mansion,” a 7,000-square-foot oceanfront home at 392 South Ocean Boulevard in South Palm Beach. [Sun-Sentinel] – Mike Seemuth