Subway bakery investor buys flipped Palm Beach townhome

The Dallas couple who once bought Bernie Madoff’s former Palm Beach home dropped $13.9 million on a flipped townhome on the tony island. 

Records show Bennie and Stephanie Bray bought the townhouse at 218 Brazilian Avenue from Wendy Tirollo. 

Tom Shaw of Sotheby’s International Realty represented both the buyers and the seller.

The Brays are a Dallas-based couple and longtime real estate investors in Palm Beach. Bennie Bray is also an operational partner with the investment firm CIC Partners, and one of the lead investors in Indianapolis-based CraftMark Bakery, which makes baked goods for Subway. 

In 2010, they bought the former island home of disgraced financier Bernie Madoff at 410 North Lake Way from the U.S. government for $5.7 million, records show. They sold it for $9 million in 2013, according to property records. More recently, the Brays bought unit 31 in the Kirkland House at 101 Worth Avenue for $15 million in June of last year, records show. 

Weny Tirollo is the CEO of TRM Microwave, an electronic components manufacturer in Bedford, New Hampshire. The San Francisco-based private equity firm Arcline Investment Management acquired TRM Microwave in 2021 for an unspecified price and formed Quantic, according to a press release.  

Tirollo bought the Brazilian Avenue townhouse from billionaire developer Richard Kurtz for $8.3 million in January, records show. Built in 2022, the four-bedroom, five-bathroom unit spans 4,000 square feet and includes a pool and spa, according to the listing. 

She listed the townhouse for $15.5 million in March, Realtor.com shows. The sale equates to a $5.6 million or 68 percent gain in price in nine months.

The other townhouse in the development was also flipped in a similar timeframe. Hedge funder and real estate investor David Malm flipped his unit to financier Steven Hudson for $14.4 million last month. He closed on his townhome for $12 million in January.