Couple who paid about $170 million for Palm Beach mansion has sold other home across town
Said to have set a new residential sales record in Palm Beach three months ago when they paid around $170 million for a North End oceanfront mansion, luxury car dealer Michael Cantanucci and his wife, Kimberly, have now sold their award-winning home across town on Clarke Avenue for $32.375 million.
The deed shows a revocable trust was on the buyer's side of the transaction for 240 Clarke Ave., which the Cantanuccis bought in 2014 through an ownership company for a price recorded at about $12.9 million.
The trust on the buyer’s side of the deed is affiliated with powerhouse marketing-and-advertising executives Ashlee and Chris Clarke, according to a Brazilian Avenue address on the deed and several sources familiar with the deal. In June, the Clarkes used a similar trust to sell their renovated 1928 Palm Beach house at 130 Cocoanut Row for a recorded $16.2 million.
The Clarkes, the Cantanuccis and their real estate broker, Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Clarke Avenue sale closed July 14, the multiple listing service show, and the deed recorded July 18. The Palm Beach Daily News was the first media outlet to report that the house had changed hands.
The house on Clarke Avenue has five bedrooms and 7,140 square feet of living space, inside and out, according to the property records and the multiple listing service. Completed in 2009, it won the Palm Beach Preservation Foundation’s Schuler Award for excellence in new architecture in 2012.
Property records show the house on Clarke Avenue was owned by a Delaware-registered limited liability company named KMC Property Holdings. The initials in the company’s name match those of the Cantanuccis. Gunster attorney Tyrone T. Bongard, who manages the KMC Property Holdings, signed the deed to sell the house. Bongard did not immediately return a phone message left at his office.
The Cantanuccis were widely reported to have been the buyers in April of a beachfront mansion at 589 N. County Road, which was sold by Green Mountain/Keurig coffee tycoon Robert Stiller and his wife, Christine. The sales price for that record-setting deal was not documented in courthouse records because of the way the private sale was structured. But the Palm Beach Daily News confirmed that the mansion traded at about $170 million.
RECORD-SETTING DEAL IN PALM BEACH: Palm Beach oceanfront home sells for around $170 million, beating previous record by millions
Angle acted on behalf of the buyers on North County Road.
Angle listed the Clarke Avenue house in late March at $34.95 million and brought the buyers to the deal, the MLS shows. It was under contract by the middle of April, according to the updated sales listing.
Palm Beach house on Clarke Avenue features Mediterranean-style architecture
Michael Cantanucci’s New Country Motor Car Group and its divisions own Mercedes-Benz, Maserati, Ferrari, Porsche and other luxury-car dealerships and accident-repair centers in Florida, Connecticut, New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Headquartered in Saratoga Springs, New York, the company’s Florida portfolio includes Ferrari, Mercedes and Maserati dealerships in West Palm Beach; a Mercedes dealership in North Palm Beach; and a Ferrari dealership in Naples on the west coast.
The house on Clarke Avenue is the fifth property west of South County Road and stands on a lot measuring two-fifths of an acre. It was designed in a clean-lined, Mediterranean style by Smith Architectural Group’s principal architect, Jeffery Smith, who is the chairman of the Palm Beach Architectural Commission.
Built by Davis General Contracting, the house has elaborate millwork, detailed cypress ceilings and floors of hardwood and stone, according to Angle’s listing, which described the layout as “perfect for entertaining.” The floorplan includes a formal dining room and a generously proportioned living room with a fireplace. The wood-paneled library — with built-in cabinetry and a marble fireplace — leads to a wet bar and wine room.
French doors in several of the public rooms open to the pool patio or access the poolside loggia.
The well-equipped kitchen has high-end appliances, a breakfast nook and a nearby butler's pantry. And the primary suite offers three walk-in closets, two en-suite baths and a terrace overlooking the pool.
Other features include an outdoor fireplace, a whirlpool spa, a front motor court and a two-car garage accessed by a service drive.
The Cantanuccis’ ownership company bought the Clarke Avenue house from retired communications mogul and private-equity specialist Jeff Marcus and his wife, Nicola, who built it as a custom home.
Jeff Marcus commissioned the house shortly before he became engaged to his wife, who helped oversee the project, he told the Palm Beach Daily News in 2012.
“We really wanted a house where we could live in every room — a home that would work well when just the two of us were here or when we had house guests or dinner guests,” Jeff Marcus said.
After selling the house nine years ago, the Marcuses bought a beachfront estate on North Ocean Boulevard, which they sold three years ago to an ownership company linked to rocker Jon Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea Hurley.
Clarkes sold house on Cocoanut Row, which they had bought in early 2021
The latest deed for the Clarke Avenue property shows the house was sold through the 240 Clarke Ave Revocable Trust, for which attorney Paul A. Krasker served as trustee. Krasker could not be reached.
Krasker was also the trustee when the Clarkes sold their Cocoanut Row house in mid-June through the 130 Cocoanut Revocable Trust. The buyer in that off-market sale was an ownership company linked to Mississippi businessman and former Ambassador to Tanzania Michael Retzer Sr. Retzer also has a son, businessman Michael Retzer Jr., according to public records.
A former journalist, Ashlee Clarke is an entrepreneur who serves as CEO and chief creative officer of NitroC, an independent advertising and media agency, according to a biographical sketch on the company's website.
She is also CEO of the advertising and marketing agency Empower Media, where her husband is executive chairman, according to its website. Chris Clarke's career included founding advertising-and-marketing agency Nitro in Shanghai, which merged in 2009 to become SapientNitro, which was billed as the world's largest independent advertising and digital marketing agency. In 2014, Publicis Groupe bought SapientNitro for reported $3.7 billion.
The Clarkes have helped produce Broadway shows, including the award-winning musical "Tootsie" in 2019.
The modified Monterey-style house the Clarkes sold on Cocoanut Row stands on a lot of about a third of an acre several streets north of Royal Poinciana Way. The Cocoanut Row house has 7,106 square feet of living space, inside and out, with six bedrooms, including those in a garage apartment.
Agent Jim McCann of Premier Estate Properties confirmed he handled the seller's side of the Cocoanut Row deal but declined to discuss the transaction at the time of the sale; McCann could not be reached for comment about the sale on Clarke Avenue. Angle handled the buyer's end of the sale on Cocoanut Row.
April sale around $170 million likely the second-highest ever in Florida
When The Wall Street Journal covered the Cantanuccis’ purchase on North County Road in April, the newspaper reported that the couple had sold an apartment at 220 Central Park South in New York City “for just over $40 million in 2021 and are buying an over-$50 million unit at 111 West 57th Street.”
In the record-setting sale on North County Road, broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates acted on behalf of the Stillers. Moens, Angle and their clients have not commented publicly about the sale on North County Road.
The North County Road sale is likely the second-highest in the state, following the June 2022 purchase of a Manalapan estate by software billionaire Larry Ellison of Oracle Corp for a recorded $173 million.
The previous sale price record in Palm Beach was set in March when the estate of the late Rush Limbaugh sold for a recorded $155 million. A company linked to cosmetics billionaire William P. Lauder bought the former Limbaugh estate, which comprises three separate parcels, including the main house at 1495 N. Ocean Blvd.
Robert Stiller co-founded and is the former CEO of the Keurig Green Mountain coffee empire. The company today is known as Keurig Dr Pepper Inc.
Shortly after parting with the house on North County Road, the Stillers used an ownership company to pay a recorded $66 million for a lakefront house at 1350 N. Lake Way in Palm Beach. That house was sold by a company associated with resort-and-casino billionaire Steve Wynn and his wife, Andrea Hissom Wynn, who had renovated it for resale. Moens handled both sides of the North Lake Way deal.
DOWNSIZING IN PALM BEACH: Couple who sold Palm Beach home for about $170 million buys another for $66 million
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This story was updated July 19, 2023 — the day after the deed was recorded for the sale of 240 Clarke Ave. — to add details about the buyer's side of the transaction 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: Couple who paid about $170M for mansion has sold other Palm Beach home
