Rivet tycoon buys waterfront West Palm home for $16M

Rivet mogul Jim Randall nabbed another waterfront home in South Florida, The Real Deal has learned.

Randall acquired the six-bedroom, six-bathroom home at 3240 North Flagler Drive for $16 million, according to a source. New Jersey attorneys and husband and wife Lawrence Rolnick and Kimberly Sorrentino sold the 7,524-square-foot house for nearly double their $8.2 million purchase price 16 months ago, property records show.

William Sarnie of Simon Isaacs Real Estate represented the buyer. Elizabeth DeWoody of Compass represented the sellers. The West Palm Beach home, built in 2007, was asking $18 million.

Randall made his fortune when he sold his aerospace rivet manufacturing company, Allfast Fastening Systems, for $360 million in 2014. He also owns the house next door at 3304 North Flagler Drive through a Delaware LLC that’s based at a Los Angeles address linked to Randall. The company paid $7.5 million for that house a year ago.

After making repairs and aesthetic improvements, the buyer will list the house at 3240 North Flagler Drive for rent, likely asking about $60,000 a month, Sarnie said. Eventually, both homes could be knocked down and redeveloped into spec homes.

“I think people are realizing you can have the same quality of life as being on Palm Beach without paying Palm Beach prices,” said Sarnie, who called West Palm Beach’s North Flagler Drive undervalued.

DeWoody, the listing agent, said she received a lot of interest from prospective buyers because it’s “the only direct Intracoastal property” that was available on North Flagler Drive. It overlooks the Palm Beach Country Club, she said.

The lot includes about 70 feet of frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway, a deep water dock, pool, covered loggia and other outdoor spaces.

In July, Wolf Von Falkenburg, the widower of a Standard Oil heiress, sold his waterfront West Palm Beach estate at 4906 North Flagler Drive to the Related Group for $16 million.

Randall, of Randall Realty Group, has been investing in other South Florida real estate. He’s part of the investment group that paid about $24 million for the former waterfront Indian Creek Island estate of longtime “Sábado Gigante” host Don Francisco last year. Spec home developer Todd Michael Glaser, Scott Robins, Jonathan Fryd and Randall acquired the property with plans to build a new spec mansion asking $59 million.

Randall is also a partner in Glaser’s redevelopment of Tarpon Island, a 2.3-acre island in Palm Beach that the Glaser-led partnership acquired last year for $85 million.