The appeal of the new: Just-finished Palm Beach 'spec' house asks $23M near Mar-a-Lago

New seldom gets old when it comes to buyers of Palm Beach real estate.

During the mad sales rush of 2021 and 2022, developers scrambled to keep up with what seemed to be house-hunters’ unquenchable thirst for new homes developed on speculation.

Some of those projects that slid into the pipeline a while back are just now being completed and entering a market not nearly as frenzied as it was during the pandemic-fueled boom.

Even so, developers and their real estate agents understand how the faint scent of fresh paint on new walls can be a powerful attraction to buyers touring a never-lived-in house.

Just ask Palm Beach developer Lee Fensterstock and his longtime real estate agents, Paulette Koch and Dana Koch of the Corcoran Group.

Last week — just in time for the winter season — Fenstertock’s work crews completed construction of a new build at 130 Algoma Road. The midblock house stands on an Estate Section lot of about two-fifths of an acre. The street is the third one north of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.

The house — priced at $23 million — is the only property in Palm Beach for sale with an asking price between $20 million and $25 million, according to a search early this week.

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“New construction is still the gold standard in Palm Beach,” Dana Koch told the Palm Beach Daily News. “Buyers today don’t have the bandwidth to take on projects that can take two to three years, from planning to completion.”

Corcoran’s sales listing describes the clean-lined, traditional-style house as “elegantly casual,” with a free-flowing layout that includes five bedrooms and 7,312 square feet of living space, inside and out.

Designer Michael Perry of MP Design & Architecture drew up the plans, which cleverly downplay the second story when the house is viewed from the street. Instead, the second level stretches south toward the rear of the lot.

The white stucco exterior is accented by a red roof, black window shutters and metal railings.

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Inside, Palm Beach interior designer Scott Sanders provided the finishes for “the generously scaled rooms with ultra-high ceilings,” according to the listing. The house is not furnished.

Rooms feature hardwood floors, coffered ceilings and crown molding, along with marble-appointed bathrooms and custom-fitted closets. The contemporary-style kitchen has marble counters and stainless-steel appliances.

In the combination living room/dining room, French doors on one side open onto the poolside loggia with an adjacent pergola-topped patio. The French doors on the opposite side of the room offer garden views.

The grounds and pool area were designed by landscape architect Mario Nievera of Nievera Williams Design.

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Fensterstock paid $4.1 million for the property in early 2021 and knocked down a house to build the new one. The developer, who lives on the North End, has built, remodeled and sold a number of homes in Palm Beach.

His latest residential project is a five-bedroom spec house rising on a North End lot at 216 Southland Drive. It's listed with Paulette Koch and her son at an in-construction price just under $17 million.

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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: Near Mar-a-Lago, a just-finished spec house is priced at $23 million