Netscape co-founder James Clark sells Palm Beach home for $90M

Netscape’s co-founder recently sold a 5-acre estate for close to $90 million to Kathryn and Leo A. Vecellio Jr., marking the second-highest real estate home sale in Palm Beach’s history, according to the Palm Beach Daily News.

The off-the-market deal was brokered by Lawrence Moens of Lawrence Moens Associates. It is the largest residential sale in Palm Beach this year.

1500 South Ocean Boulevard

The oceanfront property, known as Il Palmetto sits at 1500 South Ocean Boulevard. It has 340 feet of beachfront along with 360 feet of frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway, according to the Palm Beach Daily News.

Netscape’s co-founder James Clark paid $11 million for the property in 1999 and then restored and expanded the estate.

Leo Vecellio Jr. heads the Vecellio Group, one of the largest contractors in the country, which owns Ranger Construction Industries of West Palm Beach.

Clark first listed the property in 2016 through Sotheby’s International Realty, at $137 million, according to the Palm Beach Daily News. It was most recently listed in January at $95 million by Moens.

The only sale higher than the Il Palmetto was a $95 million sale of President Donald Trump’s 6-acre Palm Beach estate at 515 North County Road to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev in 2008.

Moens was also the broker for the Rybolovlev deal, as well as a number of high-profile luxury real estate transactions in Palm Beach, including Ken Griffin’s purchases. Griffin, founder of the Chicago hedge fund Citadel, has spent more than $230 million assembling land for his Palm Beach estate at 1265 South Ocean Boulevard. Moens has represented both sides of nearly all of those deals, according to the Palm Beach Daily News. [Palm Beach Daily News]  — Keith Larsen