Financier sells Bristol condo in West Palm for $21M

Robert and Carol Garvy paid $11.9M for the unit in 2019

Intech Investment Management’s Robert Garvy and Warner Pacific Insurance Services’ John J. Nelson with The Bristol Palm Beach at 1100 South Flagler Drive
Intech Investment Management’s Robert Garvy and Warner Pacific Insurance Services’ John J. Nelson with The Bristol Palm Beach at 1100 South Flagler Drive (Warner Pacific, LinkedIn, Shawn Hood Media)

A financier sold his condo in the Bristol in West Palm Beach for $21 million.

Records show Robert and Carol Garvy sold unit 1901 in the tower at 1100 South Flagler Drive to John J. Nelson. Nelson and his wife, Renee Raudman Nelson, financed the purchase with a $12.5 million mortgage from Bank of America, records show.

Samantha Curry of Douglas Elliman had the listing, and Steve Hall of Compass represented the buyer.

Robert Garvy is the founder and former CEO of Intech Investment Management, a West Palm Beach-based asset manager that had $38 billion in assets under management at the end of 2021, according to a press release. Garvy also previously served as chairman of the board of trustees for the University of Central Florida.

John J. Nelson is CEO of Warner Pacific Insurance Services, a Westlake Village, California-based firm that supports health insurance brokers. Records tie the Nelsons to Brookfield Farms LLC, a California entity established in 2019.

The Garvys bought the unit for $11.9 million in 2019 when the tower was completed, records show. The unit spans 5,500 square feet, with four bedrooms, four bathrooms, and one half-bathroom. It also has a 1,500-square-foot terrace.

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The Bristol is a 25-story, 69-unit tower developed by Al Adelson of Flagler Investors and Gene Golub. Condos in the building range from 3,400 square feet to 14,000 square feet. When construction was completed in 2019, it made waves as the first new condo tower in West Palm Beach in a decade.

The Bristol’s amenities include two spas, a beauty salon, a concierge for residents, a fitness center, lounge, pool, and dog park.

Beauty mogul Sydell Miller paid a record $42.6 million for a full-floor penthouse at the Bristol in 2019. Miller, who with her late husband sold their hair and beauty products line Matrix Essentials to Bristol Myers Squibb in 2005, bought the entire 24th floor.

Other buyers in the tower have ranged from corporations to big-name heirs. In December, an affiliate of Wanxiang America Real Estate sold a unit in the building for $12 million, setting a price-per-square-foot record of $3,364.

In 2021, the former vice chairman of Atlanta-based First Data bought a condo for $16.5 million. Earlier that same year, an heir of the Annenberg publishing family sold his unit in the tower for $7.8 million.