Palm Beach real estate broker Moens testifies in Trump case about Mar-a-Lago's value

In a New York City courtroom Tuesday, powerhouse Palm Beach real estate broker Lawrence Moens reiterated his view that in 2021 former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and its 17.5 ocean-to-lake acres would have been worth slightly over $1 billion.

Moens is among the defense witnesses testifying for Trump in an ongoing civil fraud trial before Judge Arthur Engoron. The judge has already ruled that Trump and other defendants misled banks and insurance companies through documents that consistently overvalued Trump properties, including his private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.

Engoron has valued the club based on the Palm Beach County property appraiser’s valuations going back more than a decade, from $18 million in 2011 to $27.6 million in 2021. Those assessments take into account long-standing deed restrictions that prevent the property from being used for any purpose other than a private club.

The county tax assessments were based on Mar-a-Lago’s annual net operating income as a club, not on its resale value as a home or on its reconstruction cost. The county uses the operating-income method to value Mar-a-Lago and other social clubs, and the outcome carries tax benefits for Trump — a $602,000 property tax bill this year, compared to about $18 million if Mar-a-Lago were assessed at $1 billion.

Yet when pulling information together for Trump’s annual financial statements, his former corporate controller Jeffrey McConney valued Mar-a-Lago club as though the property could be sold as a private home.

TRUMP'S NEW YORK FRAUD TRIAL: Could the former president lose control of West Palm Beach golf club? Mar-a-Lago?

In 2019, Trump filed a document with the county declaring Mar-a-Lago his primary home. In 2021, attorney John C. Randolph, who provides legal counsel to the Town of Palm Beach, advised the Town Council that under the town’s zoning code, private clubs can provide living quarters to a “bona fide employee,” and Trump qualifies for that designation.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the New York fraud case, saying that his financial statements actually undervalued his assets and were accompanied by disclaimers that wipe away liability for any mistakes. He is scheduled to testify Monday as the final witness to be called by his defense team.

Mar-a-Lago is “breathtaking,” Moens says in New York courtroom

Moens’ testimony Tuesday supported the broker’s statements in a pre-trial report in which he said an ultra-wealthy buyer would pay dearly for Mar-a-Lago.

“It’s something breathtaking. It’s something amazing to see,” Moens said in court, before showing a video accompanied by swelling music, aerial shots of the property at sunrise and sunset and a closing image of an American flag, filmed when the flag was at half-staff in honor of the Nov. 19 death of former first lady Rosalynn Carter.

Moens’ estimates of Mar-a-Lago's value between 2011 and 2021 appear to reflect the steady price escalation that is a signature feature of Palm Beach real estate.

In Moens’ pre-trial deposition, he said he would have valued Mar-a-Lago at $655 million in 2011 on the open market. The property’s value would have soared to $1.04 billion in 2021, he said in the deposition.

Moens' estimates were more substantial then McConney's. In 2011, McConney valued the club property at about $425.5 million and in 2021 put its value at $612 million.

At one point, Moens briefly answered a personal phone call while on the witness stand from his father, who is in his early 90s. “Dad, I love you, but I’ve got to get off the phone,” Moens said.

The Messenger’s Adam Klasfeld posted Tuesday about the trial on X, formerly Twitter, saying that after Moens left the courtroom, “Engoron said the case — at its heart — isn’t about whether the properties are overvalued. It's about whether Trump and other other defendants used ‘false documents.’”

“That's not the bottom issue for me,” Engoron said, Klasfeld posted.

VALUING MAR-A-LAGO: How does Palm Beach County value Mar-a-Lago, other local Trump properties for taxes?

Engoron is presiding over the penalty phase of the fraud case brought in September 2022 by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr., his son Eric Trump and others regarding the finances of The Trump Organization.

Miami attorney testifies Mar-a-Lago could be sold as a home

Also on Tuesday, the defense presented as a witness Miami-based real estate attorney John Shubin, who told the court Mar-a-Lago could be sold as a home, notwithstanding decades-old legal documents in which Donald Trump said he intended to forswear its use as anything but a club.

Shubin testified that “there is absolutely no prohibition on the use of Mar-a-Lago as a single-family residence.”

He noted that the property is simultaneously a club and the former president’s residence. Shubin also pointed to a 1993 agreement between Donald Trump and the town that said Mar-a-Lago would revert to private residential use if the club were “abandoned.”

“Anybody who buys it … would just step into the shoes of President Trump,” defense attorney Christopher Kise said.

This past August, the real estate website Zillow erroneously updated its property record for Mar-a-Lago to show that the property had been sold for $422 million. Zillow ultimately withdrew the sale update, and a spokeswoman for the website said Zillow had received incorrect information that led to its posting in the first place.

On Aug. 25, the same day Zillow retracted the notice, Eric Trump issued a statement to Newsweek denying any sale:  “Mar-a-Lago has not been sold nor will it ever be. This rumor is asinine,” Eric Trump’s statement said.

MAR-A-LAGO MISTAKE: Oops! Eric Trump denies Mar-a-Lago sold for $422 million; Zillow admits listing error

The former president bought Mar-a-Lago to use as his personal vacation home in 1985, restored it and opened it as a private club about a decade later. The estate was built in the late 1920s by cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, who was married at the time to stockbroker E.F. Hutton.

Moens founded his brokerage, Lawrence A. Moens Associates, in 1982. During his career he has taken part in many of the most expensive sales in Palm Beach and vicinity. In 2022, he handled both sides of the most expensive residential real estate deal ever recorded in Florida, when billionaire Netscape founder Jim Clark sold, for $173-million, his ocean-to-lake estate in Manalapan to Oracle software billionaire Larry Ellison.

dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com

Reporter Jennifer Peltz of The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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This story has been updated from a previous version.

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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.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach real estate broker Moens testifies about Mar-a-Lago's value