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North Carolina tech honcho buys Palm Beach mansion site for $15M
InVue CEO James Sankey and his wife bought the property from luxury home builder BGS Development
UPDATED, Aug. 27, 1:15 p.m.: Technology chief James Sankey and his wife, Beth, paid $14.7 million for a vacant lot in Palm Beach where they plan on building a new mansion.
The couple acquired the nearly half-acre site at 125 El Bravo Way from spec home builder BGS Development, led by Braden G. Smith. Smith already has approved plans to build a 10,000-square-foot, five-bedroom house with traditional-style architecture influenced by Bermudan estates, records show.
Sankey is CEO of InVue, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based software and hardware company specializing in merchandising, security and networking, according to the firm’s website.
In December, the Town of Palm Beach Architectural Commission approved plans for the new house submitted by 125 El Bravo Way LLC, an entity managed by Smith. The property and the plans were listed for sale with an asking price of $15.9 million, records show.
Smith acquired 125 El Bravo Way in 2020 for $7.1 million from insurance tycoon Peter Wood. The property is part of the former Kluge estate in Palm Beach at 89 Middle Road that was demolished and subdivided. Smith, who also worked in real estate in Chicago, New York and Washington D.C., has built and sold three spec homes in Palm Beach since 2019.
The Sankeys’ purchase is the latest high-profile non-waterfront residential sale on the ritzy island.
This month, a Delaware entity listing a New York address bought a mansion at 315 Clarke Avenue for $21.5 million. The property had been owned by sellers Peter and Vicki Halmos for 36 years. Halmos was CEO of Fort Lauderdale-based credit card insurance company SafeCard Services in the 1990s.
Last month, Alec Scheiner bought a non-waterfront home at 249 Sandpiper Drive. The private equity investor and former Cleveland Browns president paid $6.1 million for the house.
About three miles south, New York construction company executive Thomas Iovino and his wife Judith bought a spec mansion at 259 Pendleton Avenue. The couple paid $18.4 million, two days before selling another Palm Beach home they owned.
Correction: A previous version of this story misrepresented the entity that submitted plans for the new house.