Mystery buyer pays $68.15 million for Palm Beach house on "corner" of ocean and inlet

A mystery buyer or buyers who may require ultra-top-level security services just paid a recorded $68.146 million for a Palm Beach house at the “corner“ of the Atlantic Ocean and the inlet on the northern tip of the island, the Palm Beach Daily News has learned from people familiar with the purchase.

The contemporary-style house stands at 149 E. Inlet Drive, a short street that makes a loop to the beach from North Ocean Boulevard. The property itself also is said to have been vetted by personnel from at least one government security agency to ensure that it can be secured adequately, people familiar with the deal have told the Palm Beach Daily News.

The sale closed July 3, according to records in the multiple listing service. The deed recorded July 5 lists the buyer as The Northern Trust Co., “solely in its capacity as trustee“ of the Island Sands Trust. The document lists the buyer’s post office address in care of trust adviser Marin Jaudenes at The Northern Trust Co. on Brickell Avenue in Miami.

Jaudenes could not be immediately reached. Because of privacy rules governing trusts, no other information about the Island Sands Trust was immediately available in public records, and the Palm Beach Daily News has been unable to confirm the identity of anyone else involved with the trust.

The Palm Beach Daily News was the first media outlet to report the sale.

The house was sold by the couple who built it as a custom home for themselves — businessman Myron “Mosie” Miller and his wife, Michelle. They completed the house in 2020 and had it homesteaded as their primary residence in the latest tax rolls.

The house has seven bedrooms and 11,706 square feet of living space, inside and out, according to the sales listing.

Two weeks, ago, the Millers paid a recorded $21.625 million for a lakefront house on the opposite side of the island at 1246 N. Lake Way.

The house the Millers just sold has expansive windows that capture dramatic 180-degree views of the inlet, the Palm Beach Jetty and the Atlantic. The lot has 250 feet of inlet frontage, with another 114 feet on the ocean.

Although the actual lot measures 1.4 acres, courthouse records show, the property appears much larger, thanks to federally protected easements abutting the property line, including dune vegetation and beach. In all, the lot and the vacant easements on the east and north side of the house measure about 4 acres.

Former Miller house facing Palm Beach's inlet was listed at $79 million

Architect Roger Janssen of Dailey Janssen Architects designed the Inlet Drive house after the Millers bought the lot for a recorded $14.64 million in 2017, property records show.

Palm Beach broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates had the listing for the house, which had been on and off the market since early 2021 and was initially listed by another agency.

Moens set an asking price of $79 million, which never wavered. The house landed under contract June 2, the MLS shows.

Moens and the Millers could not be reached for comment.

With longtime ties to Palm Beach, Mosie Miller is an entrepreneur from a real estate family whose projects have included marinas, resorts and shopping centers. He also founded and is CEO of West Palm Beach-based Expedited Travel, which helps clients shorten the timeframe for obtaining travel documents.

Agent Madison Collum of One Sotheby’s International Realty in Palm Beach handled the buyer’s side of the sale, the MLS shows. He declined to comment.

The property affords views of boats and ships streaming in and out of the Atlantic through the inlet, which separates Palm Beach from Singer Island and accesses the Intracoastal Waterway and the Port of Palm Beach.

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The West Indies-influenced architecture has a contemporary look, with gables, sloped rooflines and “stark, clear lines,“ Janssen told the Architectural Commission when the board approved the design in April 2018. The white-stucco exterior and roof is accented with windows fitted with blue-tinted glass.

The house was designed to fit the Millers’ preference for an indoor-outdoor lifestyle, Janssen told the architectural board. The front door opens onto a pergola-covered breezeway that bridges the guest wing to the west and the main residence to the east.

One can walk straight through the breezeway to a lawn and pool area fronting the inlet and sheltered on three sides by exterior walls.

The house was built by Seabreeze Building of West Palm Beach.

Before the Milers bought it, the property for decades was the site of an unassuming one-story house built in the 1960s and home to the late Gabrielle Kuvin and her late husband, Dr. Sanford F. Kuvin.

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Millers took part in other recent real estate sales, including buying a Palm Beach home

The Millers were busy with real estate deals in June in Palm Beach and, to the north, in Palm Beach Gardens.

The residence they bought on North Lake Way was sold to them by longtime Palm Beach environmentalist and entrepreneur Kane Baker and his wife, Mary, who have bought a recently completed house designed by Janssen on South Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach.

The Bakers’ former Palm Beach residence was built in 1962 but later renovated. With six bedrooms, the house has 6,856 square feet of living space, inside and on its loggias and patios.

The North Lake Way house stands on a lot of about a third of an acre, midway between the Palm Beach Country Club and the inlet. Its lake frontage measures 75 feet, and the property has its own deepwater dock.

Moens acted for the Millers and the Bakers in the deal on North Lake Way.

The Millers’ purchase of the house on North Lake Way was recorded June 13, less than two weeks after they sold, for a recorded $20 million, an investment property at 12236 Tillinghast Circle in Palm Beach Gardens to an ownership company widely reported to be controlled by businessman Robert Johnson, who co-founded the BET television network.

With 20,590 total square feet, that house — built in 2011 — presides over about an acre in Old Palm Golf Club. The layout includes five bedrooms and garage space for four cars.

The Millers paid $10 million for the Old Palm house in late 2021 and then commissioned architect Janssen to design a major renovation to update the interior and change the exterior from its original Mediterranean style to a contemporary look.

Agent Vince Marotta of Illustrated Properties acted for the Millers in the sale on Tillinghast Circle, the MLS shows. Brown Harris Stevens agent Blair Kirwan represented the buyer but declined to comment about the transaction or confirm her client's identity.

Moens was the listing agent for the house the Bakers bought for a recorded $12.5 million at 6175 S. Flagler Drive, the MLS shows. The Bakers' son — agent Fletcher Baker of Compass Florida — acted for the buyers but declined to comment about the transaction.

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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: Mystery buyer pays $68 million for Palm Beach house at inlet and ocean