Condominium sale sets record for shiny Bristol and West Palm Beach
A record high sale at The Bristol condominium in West Palm Beach is not just a benchmark for the sparkling tower on the Lake Worth Lagoon but also a top price for a condo in the city at large, according to luxury real estate agents who handled the deal.
A deed signed Dec. 15 puts the total price for unit 1403 at a recorded $12.025 million, but it’s the cost per square foot of livable space ― $3,364 ― that is the record breaker, said Samantha Curry, executive director of luxury sales for Douglas Elliman Palm Beach.
“It’s an important sale for West Palm Beach,” said Curry, who co-listed the unit with Daniel Ekerold, also a director of luxury sales for Douglas Elliman Palm Beach. “It means there are still people moving to Florida, and that Palm Beach County and West Palm Beach are in high demand.”
The total sale price is also double the $5.7 million paid by the first buyer of the 15th-floor condominium when the building opened in 2019. Built on the former grounds of a church’s outdoor amphitheater on Flagler Drive, the condo sold out its 68 units by early 2021 for just under $600 million. They ranged in price from $5 million to $43 million.
The seller, who was represented by Curry and Ekerold, is listed on the deed as Wanxiang USA Holdings Corp., which manufactures motor vehicle parts and accessories, according to Bloomberg. While the previous owner never lived in the unit, it was rented briefly before the pandemic.
A trust named LATOSUD is listed as the buyer with Jason Horowitz as trustee. The buyer was represented by Brooke Murphy and Kyle Blackmon with Compass, who declined to comment on the deal.
Peter Zalewski, principal of the condominium consultant group Condo Vultures, called Palm Beach County the "underdog" when it comes to competing with sale prices in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Still, he said the price for unit 1403 was notable.
"A price of this magnitude will catch the market's attention," Zalewski said.
But it also sold for below the original asking price of $13.350 million, which could mean it's the "high water mark for The Bristol and West Palm Beach," Zalewski said. For Palm Beach County condos that sold for $1 million or more January through September, the average price per square foot was $973, according to Zalewski.
The highest price paid for a condominium in Palm Beach County from Jan. 1 through Dec. 20 per square foot was $5,226 for the penthouse suite at One Royal Palm Condo in Palm Beach, Zalewski said. The total sale price for the oceanfront unit was $15 million.
The previous record holder for highest condo price in West Palm Beach was $3,136 per square foot and was also at The Bristol.
“These are true luxury apartments,” said Douglas Elliman agent Burt Minkoff. “The quality of views, the amenities, the services in the building are amazing, and the apartments are built in a very Miami way. It’s a very Miami kind of building.”
Striking floor-to-ceiling glass windows are in every unit, offering views of downtown West Palm Beach, the Intracoastal waterway, Palm Beach and Atlantic Ocean from most rooms.
Minkoff said The Bristol, which was developed by Flagler Investors Ltd., set the standard for luxury condo living in West Palm Beach with other new buildings, such as La Clara, also upping the bar.
It was a turning point, he said, in the elevation of the city's stature among the richest people in the world.
The pandemic may have boosted sales with wealthy buyers flocking to Florida to get out of big cities in the Midwest and Northeast. But Palm Beachers also moved across the Royal Park Bridge.
“You had all these naysayers saying it was crazy to build The Bristol because no one was going to go to West Palm Beach,” Minkoff said. “And then, literally, people started buying.”
Notably, longtime island resident Sydell Miller bought the 24th floor of The Bristol, which included two condos, for $42.56 million. The price per square foot on the sale was $2,260. Miller, who co-founded the Matrix Essentials hair-and-beauty products brand, later sold her oceanfront Palm Beach estate for $105 million.
“I think if you were buying real estate in the area just three years ago, a large portion of buyers would not even consider buying in West Palm Beach because they were focused on the island,” Ekerold said. “Now we are trending toward people wanting to be on this side of the bridge.”
Despite Zalewski's concerns that 1403 may be the price peak at The Bristol, Curry doesn't expect the unit's record to stand long.
She has another Bristol condo under contract that was listed for $23.9 million and she expects it will sell for higher than 1403's per-square-foot price. She wouldn’t say what the contract price is, but the sale is expected to close in January.
While sale prices on Palm Beach County single-family homes and condominiums have slipped from their pandemic highs, the trend doesn't always translate to the uber-elite market.
"The luxury market is a whole different animal," said Florida Atlantic University real estate economist Ken H. Johnson. "I wouldn't say all of West Palm Beach is now open for really high prices."
Kimberly Miller is a veteran journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida's environment. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: West Palm Beach high-rise gets boost with record real estate sale
