Financier buys non-waterfront Palm Beach townhouse for $8M

Richard Roeder also owns a Palm Beach condo he bought for $2.5M in 2021

From left: Ecofibre's Jeff Bruner and Vance Street's Richard K. Roeder along with 421 Brazilian Avenue (Getty, Ecofibre, Vance Street)
From left: Ecofibre's Jeff Bruner and Vance Street's Richard K. Roeder along with 421 Brazilian Avenue (Getty, Ecofibre, Vance Street)

Financier Richard Roeder bought a non-waterfront townhouse in Palm Beach from a North Carolina textiles chief for $7.5 million.

Records show Roeder bought the townhome at 421 Brazilian Avenue from Ruth Williams and Jeffrey Bruner.

Brown Harris Stevens agent Ashley Copeland represented both the buyer and the sellers in the deal.

Roeder is a senior advisor to Vance Street Capital, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm that specializes in the industrial and medical sectors. He was previously a managing partner for Vance Street, and co-founded Los Angeles-based Aurora Capital Group (now Aurora Capital Partners).

In February of last year, Vance Street closed its third fund, raising $432.5 million, according to multiple outlets.

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Jeff Bruner is president of Greensboro, North Carolina-based textile brand Hemp Black, a subsidiary of Georgetown, Kentucky-based Ecofibre. Ecofibre acquired Bruner’s company, TexInnovate, in September of 2020, Textile World reported. Prior to TexInnovate, Bruner founded Colfax, North Carolina-based Quantum Materials.

Bruner and his wife, Ruth Williams, bought the Palm Beach townhouse for $4.4 million in 2021, records show. The 2,800-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bathroom home includes one half-bathroom and a pool, records show. Built in 1989, the townhome was renovated about four years ago by West Palm Beach firm Hive Interiors, Copeland said.

Bruner and Williams first listed it for $8 million in January, selling it for close to the asking price in less than three months.

Copeland said the sellers rarely used the home in the years they owned it, and sold it fully furnished. The townhouse is part of a block of six that have property management, making it convenient for part-time residents, she says.

“You can lock it up and leave it,” Copeland said. “You have management there to take care of it.”

Demand and prices for townhouses in Palm Beach have surged recently, Copeland said. Billionaire Herbert Wertheim flipped a townhouse for $18.6 million in February. Billionaire Palm Beach developer Richard Kurtz sold a townhouse for $12 million that same month. The adjoining townhouse sold for $8.3 million and was immediately relisted for $16 million.