Spec home developer Todd Glaser just paid $11.4 million for a 1928-era mansion in Palm Beach, with plans to renovate and resell it, The Real Deal has learned.
The 12,641-square-foot home at 125 Via del Lago has eight bedrooms and eight-and-a-half baths and sits on an 0.83-acre property.
Glaser said he bought the property under the entity 125 Via del Lago LLC. Records show the seller is GEC Properties LLC and Richard Power, with a New York address. The home last sold for $9.285 million in 2010.
The mansion was listed for $18 million in November 2016 and reduced to $16.9 million in December 2016 and $14.2 million in May, according to Redfin. That means the purchase price was 37 percent below the original asking price.
“So we stole it,” Glaser said.
Harriet Brams with Douglas Elliman – Palm Beach had the listing. David Solomon of EWM represented Glaser.
Designed by architect Marion Sims Wyeth, the home, dubbed “Casa Vera,” has private beach access. Features include a 22-foot stenciled pecky cypress wood ceiling in the living room, two fireplaces, an elevator, and a separate guest house, according to the listing.
Glaser said he plans to revamp the bathrooms, kitchen, laundry room and change the front driveway. The renovations could take about five months, and then he will put the home back on the market for an as-yet-unknown price.
The purchase marks the Miami-Beach based developer’s second in Palm Beach, as he continues to direct his focus to the ritzy town. In August, he paid $5.9 million for the landmarked house at 1221 North Lake Way, with plans to restore it and use it as a winter weekend getaway for his family, including his wife Kim and their four children.
Glaser said he views Palm Beach as his new frontier, where “the amount of wealth is staggering” and the opportunity for spec development and renovation work abounds. He said he has another vacant lot under contract for more than $20 million, but did not provide specifics.
Palm Beach has long attracted billionaires and multimillionaires. In May, fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger paid $34 million for an oceanfront estate at 100 Casa Bendita. In April, billionaire real estate investor Frank McCourt bought an oceanfront estate at 60 Blossom Way for $77.06 million, near billionaire hedge funder Ken Griffin’s assemblage. Griffin had spent about $215 million buying the land between 2012 and 2017, and plans to build a 55,800-square-foot mansion on South Ocean Boulevard and Blossom Way.