Appeal of the new: Just-finished house built on speculation fetches $16.9M in Palm Beach
Never-lived-in houses developed on speculation and priced below $18 million seldom last for long in Palm Beach, thanks to continuing market demand for move-in ready residences in this built-out town.
So it comes as no surprise that one such property — a just-completed two-story house at 240 Mockingbird Trail on the North End — has sold for a recorded $16.9 million.
Alan M. Sebulsky and his wife, Susan, bought the property, the deed recorded Wednesday shows.
Longtime Palm Beach real estate investor and resident Lee Fensterstock developed and sold the five-bedroom home through a Florida limited liability company named 240 Mockingbird LLC. It was unclear from property records whether any other investors were involved in the project.
With West Indies-inspired architecture, the house has 5,500 square feet of living space, inside and out.
The property is the second investment project Fensterstock has sold in Palm Beach this year. In April, he sold an investment house he renovated on Miraflores Drive for a recorded $13.15 million in a sale previously reported by the Palm Beach Daily News.
Fensterstock's longtime real estate agents, Paulette Koch and Dana Koch of the Corcoran Group, represented him in both sales.
Dana Koch, who declined to discuss the transactions, also declined to comment on behalf of Fensterstock.
Broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate handled the buyer’s side of the deal on Mockingbird Trail. He declined to comment about the transaction, and the Sebulskys could not immediately be reached.
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A man by the name of Alan M. Sebulsky is a venture capitalist and investments adviser who has specialized in the health care industry. His resume includes tenure as managing partner of Apothecary Capital LLC, and as a portfolio manager at BBT Capital Management Advisors, according to online records.
The Corcoran agents listed the house on Mockingbird Trail for sale at just under $16 million in October 2021 and raised the price by $1 million to $16.995 million about three months later, the multiple listing service shows. That price held steady during construction, and the house landed under contract this past February.
The floorplan includes a great room with a dining area set into a bay window. The adjacent family room is open to the kitchen and accesses a poolside loggia. The primary bedroom's balcony overlooks the pool area as well. There’s also a two-car garage.
The lot measures about three-tenths of an acre. Mockingbird Trail lies about halfway between the Palm Beach Country Club and the inlet at the northern tip of the island.
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Represented by the two Corcoran agents, Fensterstock bought the Mockingbird Trail property in March 2021 for a recorded $4.26 million and razed a 1950s-era house there to accommodate his new one. In that 2021 sale, Corcoran agent Bill Yahn represented the seller, Malcolm M. McCluskey, another longtime Palm Beach real estate investor.
Michael Perry of MP Design & Architecture in Palm Beach designed the Mockingbird Trail house. It was built by Albright Construction of Lantana with interior finishes by Scott Sanders of Scott Sanders LLC of Palm Beach and New York. Landscape architect Mario Nievera of Palm Beach’s Nievera Williams Design drew up the landscape plans.
During his career, Fensterstock has worked in the financial and investments industry, including running his own company, Fensterstock Management LLC, according to a brief online biographical sketch. Fensterstock Management invests in the financial services industry. He is a former member of the board of trustees at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
The house Fensterstock sold last spring at 233 Miraflores Drive was a completely renovated 1990s-era residence. The one-story house with four bedrooms has 4,486 total square feet. The buyer in April was PB 130 Limited Partnership of Ontario, an entity linked in public records to Canadian real estate businessman Keith L. Ray. Douglas Elliman Real Estate agent Spencer Schlager negotiated for the buyer opposite the Koch team.
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In May, Fensterstock paid $9.6 million for a 21-year-old house — said to be ripe for renovation — at 125 Via Vizcaya in the town's Estate Section. In the Via Vizcaya deal, Paulette Koch and Dana Koch handled both sides of the sale.
Fensterstock is finishing up construction on another house in Palm Beach that is listed with the Koch team. Priced at $22 million, the five-bedroom house at 130 Algoma Road in the Estate Section will have 7,312 square feet when it is completed, likely within the next two months, according to sources familiar with the property. The property is a few streets north of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club.
Fensterstock lives with his wife, Ann, in a North End house they have owned since 2013 on Merrain Road.
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Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: New Palm Beach 'spec' house sells for millions. How much did it bring?
