Commercial building home to BrickTop's sells to Palm Beach joint venture for $18.336M

The block-long commercial building that houses the popular BrickTop’s restaurant in Palm Beach has been sold for more than $18 million by the Colorado businessman whose company bought it in 2021 from the late real estate investor Burt Handelsman, the Palm Beach Daily News has confirmed.

A company controlled by real estate investor and developer Mark Hunt sold the Midtown building at 375 S. County Road in a private deal to Palm Beach-based CS Ventures, a joint venture between real estate investors Spencer Schlager and Charles L. Rosenberg.

The sale price recorded at about $18.336 million for the deal, which closed July 13, Schlager said. The building last changed hands in April 2021 for a recorded $16.2 million.

The building has about 20,000 square feet of leasable space, which does not include a basement parking area near BrickTop’s and a surface parking garage on the north side, Schlager said. The building stands on a half-acre lot that stretches between Peruvian and Chilean avenues.

Schlager and Rosenberg’s joint venture owns several other commercial buildings in Palm Beach on Royal Palm Way, Brazilian Avenue and Royal Poinciana Way.

Buyers have plans to upgrade office space at Palm Beach building

The buyers on South County Road plan to remodel and upgrade the second-floor offices into “Class A boutique offices,” Schlager said. Some of the offices are currently leased to short-term tenants, he said.

But there are no plans to change the ground-floor tenant mix, which includes BrickTop’s, Brintz Galleries and the architecture firm Wadia Associates, said Schlager, who also is an agent with Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

BrickTop’s has been the South County Road building’s anchor since the chain restaurant opened in the old Amici’s Ristorante site in January 2014. With a courtyard design, the building was completed in 1984.

Commercial real estate adviser Zachary Baraf of Palm Beach-based The Stanwich Group confirmed he orchestrated the sale but declined further comment.

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Seller on South County Road bought multiple Palm Beach buildings in 2021

On the seller’s side, Hunt bought the building in April 2021 as part of a $58 million, multi-property deal that included side-by-side commercial buildings at 225 and 219 Worth Ave. The latter building was the longtime home of a prominent restaurant-and-bar tenant, the 81-year-old Ta-boo, which shuttered in June after a contentious rental-payment dispute with Hunt’s company that ended up in court.

Hunt’s company bought the building on South County Road from a Florida joint venture between two of Handelsman’s companies. The property previously changed hands in 1983 for $2.4 million.

Hunt sold the building through a limited liability company, 375 South County Holdings LLC, property records show. It is managed a Delaware company, PB Portfolio GP, which in turn is controlled by M PB Portfolio LLC, a Colorado entity managed by Hunt, records show.

Schlager and Rosenberg bought the building using a Florida limited liability company named CSPB 375 LLC, courthouse records show.

In the 2021 deals, broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates represented Handelsman. Baraf handled the buyer’s side of the sales.

Hunt has bought and redeveloped properties in Aspen, Colorado, according to published reports. He couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

Palm Beach restaurant closes after rental dispute with Mark Hunt's company

Ta-boo closed in early June after a Palm Beach County judge ordered it to vacate the premises. The court order followed an agreement between Ta-boo owner Franklyn de Marco and Hunt’s ownership company to end an eviction case. Ta-boo’s landlord had sent the restaurant an eviction notice in March and said no rent had been paid for a year.

Acclaimed chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller has announced he will take over the former Ta-boo space. Keller's restaurant portfolio includes The French Laundry in the Napa Valley, Per Se in New York, several Bouchon bakeries, and The Surf Club Restaurant in Surfside. Baraf was also responsible for the Palm Beach deal between Keller and Hunt’s company, according to sources familiar with the deal.

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Hunt’s companies bought all of his Palm Beach buildings in 2021 from Handelsman, who with his ex-wife, the late Lucille “Lovey” Handelsman, for many years ranked among Worth Avenue’s most prolific landlords.

The sale of the South County Road building and the ones on Worth Avenue came in the wake of the Handelsmans’ contentious divorce, which was finalized in April 2019. At stake was an estimated $550 million worth of marital assets, with a number of Worth Avenue properties awarded to Lucille Handelsman.

In the divorce settlement, Burt Handelsman retained ownership of other properties in the Worth Avenue area.

Lovey Handelsman died in November 2019 at 93. Burt Handelsman died in January of this year at 95.

Companies controlled by Schlager and Rosenberg’s CS Ventures own commercial buildings at 324, 340, 350 and 440 Royal Palm Way. Their joint venture’s other Palm Beach holdings include side-by-side mixed-use buildings at 249-254 Royal Poinciana Way along with a landmarked retail-and-office building at 214 Brazilian Ave. CS Ventures also owns a building at 500 S. Australian Ave. in West Palm Beach. In all, the joint venture owns about 300,000 square feet of commercial space, Schlager said.

On South County Road, BrickTop's was recently fined by the town for code violations that included making too much late-night noise and unauthorized garbage disposal.

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This story was updated July 2018— the day after a deed for the sale of 375 S. County Road was recorded at the Palm Beach County Courthouse — to add more information about the buying entity. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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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: Which Palm Beach commercial building just sold for more than $18M?