Private equity titan buys Palm Beach estate asking $140M: sources

Spec homebuilder Mark Pulte sold 21K sf mansion

Scott Shleifer and 535 North County Road in Palm Beach (Photos via LinkedIn, Google Maps)
Scott Shleifer and 535 North County Road in Palm Beach (Photos via LinkedIn, Google Maps)

Private equity titan Scott Shleifer paid more than $120 million for an oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach, setting a record for residential sales in Florida and marking one of the most expensive home sales in the U.S., The Real Deal has learned.

The property hit the market last month and closed on Thursday, sources said. The deed was recorded on Friday for $122.7 million.

A company managed by luxury homebuilder Mark Pulte, who is the son of Pulte Homes founder William Pulte, built and sold the spec home at 535 North County Road to a Florida land trust. Former President Donald Trump once owned the site.

Shleifer is a partner and co-founder of Tiger Global Management, an investment firm based in New York with offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore and Bangalore.

The Palm Beach lot was previously part of a larger property that Trump sold to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million in 2008. Rybolovlev subsequently razed that house, subdivided the property into three lots, and sold them off for nearly $109 million. Pulte’s entity paid $37 million for his lot in 2017.

Chris Leavitt of Douglas Elliman and Ryan Serhant of Serhant

Chris Leavitt of Douglas Elliman and Ryan Serhant of Serhant

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Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates has the listing for the spec home and had an investment interest in the property. Ryan Serhant of Serhant and Chris Leavitt of Douglas Elliman represented the buyer. Moens could not be reached for comment and Serhant and Leavitt declined to comment.

The 2-acre, 21,000-square-foot mansion, with a separate guest house, has nine bedrooms, an oceanfront swimming pool, a gym, sauna and hair salon. William M. Boyle of Boyle Architecture designed the house. The lot has 150 feet of shoreline.

Neighbors include billionaire investor Nelson Peltz, who co-founded Trian Fund Management, an alternative investment management fund based in New York.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos holds the record for the highest price paid in the U.S. for a single-family home, paying $165 million last year for David Geffen’s Jack Warner Estate in Beverly Hills.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin has paid more than $350 million assembling land in Palm Beach.