Economist pays $11M for oceanfront house in Palm Beach

The math in Palm Beach checks out for economist Joseph Kasputys, who just closed on a waterfront home for $11.4 million, property records show.

The 5,000-square-foot home at 1230 North Ocean Boulevard traded for about $2,270 per square foot. The house hit the market in February for $12.75 million – meaning it sold at a 10 percent discount to its original asking price.

The seller is an Upperville, Virginia-based company, led by Ann Thompson. The same company recently sold an equestrian facility in Wellington for $8.6 million.

Kasputys’ new home last traded for about $8 million, records show. It was part of a simultaneous deal where Thompson paid $7.9 million for the house and Malcolm McCluskey paid $2.6 million for an adjacent back lot, where he built a spec home that sold in May for $5.5 million.

Kasputys has a colorful history in finance and business. In 2001 Kasputys founded the business analytics company Global Insight, Inc., which he headed for many years before selling it in 2008 for $200 million. He was also the CEO of Primark Corporation between 1987 and 2000 and was an executive at publisher McGraw-Hill. Kaputsy has also held positions in the U.S. Department of Energy and the Department of Commerce in the 1970s.

Built in 2006, his four-bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom house features a pool, two-car garage and an oceanfront cabana.

The Corcoran Group’s Allison Wren represented the seller. Dana Koch, also of Corcoran, represented the buyer.

The deal is another example of continued investment in Palm Beach’s luxury real estate market. Between 2011 and the third quarter of 2017, buyers invested more than $540 million in the county’s top 10 priciest home sales, according to a December ranking by The Real Deal. Six of those top 10 deals closed between 2016 and 2017.