An advertising titan sold a Palm Beach home for $32.5 million, as the island’s real estate busy season heats up, The Real Deal has learned.
Richard and Linda Schaps sold the home at 631 Island Drive, sources confirmed. Margit Brandt with Premier Estate Properties represented the buyer and the seller. She declined to comment.
The deal has yet to appear in public records, and the buyer is unknown.
Richard Schaps is the founder of Van Wagner Group, one of the biggest firms focused on billboard and aerial advertising in the country.
Schaps sold the billboard division of the company to CBS Outdoor for $690 million in 2014, and now focuses primarily on sports and entertainment advertising at events like the Super Bowl, Olympics, the Kentucky Derby, U.S. Open Tennis and college football playoffs. It specializes in in-stadium signage for brands that will be visible for television viewers.
The Schapses bought the waterfront home on Palm Beach’s Everglades Island for $7.9 million in 2012, according to property records. Built in 1961 on half an acre, the 6,800-square-foot home has seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, three half-bathrooms, a pool and 130 feet of water frontage with a dock, according to records and the listing. The home also has staff quarters.
The couple listed their home for $39.8 million in February, according to Zillow. They dropped the price to $37.5 million in September, and it went pending in November. The sale price marks a $7.3 million drop from the first asking price.
Agents say the market is humming this season.
Palm Beach County has seen more than $700 million in luxury contracts signed so far this month. Earlier this month, L Catterton boss Michael Chu and his wife Elizabeth Chu sold their oceanfront Palm Beach home for $58.3 million in an off-market deal. In another off-market deal, British investor Pamela W. Starret sold her lakefront estate for $72 million.