Resi Roundup: Buyers Snag Spec Homes, Teardowns and Townhouses

Spec homes, teardowns and townhouses traded across Palm Beach County in recent weeks.

Real estate investors, medical device moguls, widows and accountants were the players in this latest slate of four deals. The sales exemplify the house-hopping trend that has emerged in the county’s luxury market, as residents shuffle homes following the area’s supercharged pandemic era.

Real estate investors Robert Weed and Maria de Los Angeles Weed bought a waterfront spec home and sold another in a pair of deals totaling $21.6 million. The couple bought the 6,500-square-foot waterfront house at 55 River Drive in Tequesta for $10.3 million from an LLC named for the address, managed by Paul and Barbara Nazarro, property records show.

Paul Navarro founded Injectronics, a Massachusetts-based medical device company. Phillips-Medisize, a Hudson, Wisconsin-based company, bought Injectronics in 2016, according to published reports. Records show the couple’s mailing address is a waterfront North Palm Beach home they bought for $7.2 million in 2021.

The Nazarros bought the River Drive property for $3.4 million that same year, and tore down the existing home. The new house, completed this year on 0.3 acres, has six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and 100 feet of waterfront, the listing shows.

Anthony Hernandez of Illustrated Properties and Ryan Billings of Water Pointe Realty Group had the listing, and Andrew Russo of Illustrated Properties brought the buyers.

Russo represented the Weeds in other Palm Beach County real estate deals, including their flip of an oceanfront Jupiter mansion to music producer Dirk Ulrich for $15 million in November. Russo did not respond to a request for comment.

The Weeds also sold the 0.5-acre waterfront lot at 88 Lighthouse Drive for $11.3 million to an LLC named for the address, in an off-market deal, records show. The couple bought the Jupiter Inlet Colony property for $5.6 million in 2020 and tore down the existing home, records show. It is unclear if a new home has been built on the property. Records show the lot as vacant.

Property records show the Weeds own at least five properties across Palm Beach County. The couple has spent more than $5 million acquiring the other properties in their portfolio since 2020.

In a case of Palm Beach home-hopping, Darcy Gould sold a townhome for $14 million, just months after closing on a condo for $7.7 million, records show. Gould, the widow of Wall Street giant George Dana Gould, sold the townhouse at 401 Brazilian Avenue to Marlene Perlmutter, records show.

The Goulds bought the 5,200-square-foot Brazilian Avenue townhouse for $5.2 million in 2008, records show. It includes a pool, five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and one half-bathroom, records show.

Perlmutter, the widow of supermarket mogul Michael Perlmutter, bought Gould’s townhouse off-market.

In March, Liza Pulitzer of Brown Harris Stevens represented Gould in her purchase of unit 4C in the Dunster House, an ocean-facing Palm Beach condominium.

Longtime Palm Beach accountant Richard Rampell and his wife, Ellen Rampell, sold their home on Palm Beach’s North End to their neighbors in an off-market deal.

Records show the Rampells sold the house at 1186 North Ocean Way to Stan and Martha Lee Johnson for $14 million.

Stan Johnson founded the Stan Johnson Company, a real estate investment firm that Minneapolis-based Northmarq acquired in October, according to a press release. The Johnsons also own the house at 244 Nightingale Trail, five doors down from the North Ocean Way home.

The Rampells bought the North Ocean Way house for $225,000 in 1985, records show. Built on 0.4-acres in 1958, the house includes three bedrooms, three bathrooms and one half-bathroom, according to property records.

The Rampells aren’t departing from Palm Beach, however. In May, they bought a condo further south on the island, at Two North Breakers Row, for $10.4 million, as well as a unit in West Palm Beach’s Two City Plaza for $1.9 million, records show.