Developer sells renovated Palm Beach house for $13M

Local developer Lee Fensterstock sold a renovated non-waterfront Palm Beach house for $13.2 million.

Records show a Florida LLC named for the address and managed by Fensterstock sold the house at 233 Miraflores Drive to PB 130 Limited Partnership, an Ontario-based entity managed by Keith L. Ray.

Dana Koch and Paulette Koch of the Corcoran Group had the listing. Spencer Schlager of Douglas Elliman brought the buyer. 

Ray shares a name with a Toronto-based financier. His entity also owns a penthouse in the Sun & Surf condominium at 130 Sunrise Avenue in Palm Beach that he bought for $1.3 million in 2007, property records show.

Fensterstock is a longtime Palm Beacher and local developer who specializes in luxury spec homes and renovations. He bought the 0.3-acre Miraflores Drive house for $8.4 million in 2021, according to property records. Built in 1997, the 3,700-square-foot, four-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bathroom home includes a pool in the backyard and a two-car garage. 

Dana Koch confirmed the developer completed an extensive renovation of the house days before it went into contract, including adding a covered loggia.

Fensterstock first listed the home in March of last year for $14 million, and bumped the asking price to $15 million last April. The sale equates to $4.8 million, or 56.5 percent, in price growth for the renovated house.

Fensterstock and his wife, the author Ann Fensterstock, also own the house at 259 Merrain Road in Palm Beach, which they bought for $4.7 million in 2013, records show. They have a homestead exemption on the home.

Palm Beach has had a number of high-profile sales in recent months. Earlier this month, Warhol muse Baby Jane Holzer’s son, Rusty Holzer, sold his oceanfront house for $25 million. Last month, beauty heir and mogul William Lauder bought the late Rush Limbaugh’s oceanfront estate for $155 million. In January, a real estate investor sold his ocean-facing house for $34.9 million in an off-market deal.   

Koch said that while the market has seen “a swell of inventory,” not many Palm Beach listings are the turnkey homes buyers are seeking.

“There’s not a lot of renovated or brand new product in Palm Beach,” he said. The market is more stabilized after coming down from its pandemic frenzy, and buyers don’t have the same urgency, Koch added.

Still, “people still don’t have the bandwidth, nor the time to build projects from the ground up,” he said, and they’re willing to pay for “someone else’s sweat equity.”