The grandson of Palm Beach’s late favorite frock designer sold his estate across the bridge for $8.7 million to a clean energy financier.
Records show Robert P. Leidy Jr. and Ivey Leidy sold their house at 162 Palmetto Lane in West Palm Beach to Michael and Patricia Dunne.
Robert Leidy, who goes by Bobby, is a descendent of newspaper baron Joseph Pulitzer and the eldest grandson of Lilly Pulitzer, the late Palm Beach socialite known for her namesake clothing line and stores. Bobby Leidy is a managing partner at Teneo Capital Management and Ivey Leidy is a health and wellness coach.
Michael Dunne is vice president of finance for the Juno Beach-based energy company NextEra Energy, the world’s largest producer of wind and solar energy, according to its website. He started there in April, and prior to that spent the majority of his career working in energy and power at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Bobby Leidy’s mother, Liza Pulitzer, a broker with Brown Harris Stevens, had the listing. Brooke Murphy of Compass brought the buyer.
The Leidys bought the property for $2.4 million in 2014, records show. The 0.4-acre estate includes a 5,500-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bathroom home built in 1918, multiple gardens, a cold plunge pool, an infinity pool, and an outdoor sauna, according to the listing. The century-old home features original Moorish architectural details.
Fueled by pandemic migration and sustained by the influx of corporate relocations to “Wall Street South,” West Palm Beach real estate prices have skyrocketed over the past two years. Even with a summer cooling, pricing has remained strong in the area.
This deal matches the $8.7 million sale of a non-waterfront spec home in West Palm Beach in January, which set a record for dry properties in the area.
Waterfront West Palm Beach properties sell for almost double that these days.
A rivet tycoon bought a waterfront West Palm Beach property for $16 million in October, nearly double its purchase price the year prior. Wolf von Falkenburg, widower to a Standard Oil heiress, sold his waterfront West Palm Beach home for $16 million in July.