Palm Beach townhome sells for $13.86 million, the second flip in same duplex in five weeks

A sale this week of a newer townhouse on Palm Beach’s Brazilian Avenue means both units in the duplex have been flipped by their owners in about five weeks.

In the latest sale, technology executive Wendy D. Tirollo of Bonita Springs sold — for a recorded $13.86 million — the duplex’s east unit, addressed as 218 Brazilian Ave.

Tirollo sold the never-lived-in townhouse to a trust for which Dallas-based businessman and entrepreneur Bennie M. Bray and his wife, Stephanie, served as trustees. The Bray family has used trusts to buy and sell several properties in Palm Beach over the past decade, including the lakefront home that was once the vacation home of the late Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. A Bray family trust bought the former Madoff house on North Lake Way in a 2010 sale overseen by federal agents and then sold it in 2013.

Both of the four-bedroom townhouses on Brazilian Avenue have 5,335 square feet of living space, inside and out, with fine finishes, private pools, outdoor loggias and summer kitchens, according to their sales listings.

Tirollo bought the four-bedroom townhouse new in January, with the deed reflecting a price of $8.3 million. But she actually paid substantially more for the townhome than courthouse records show, thanks to the way the deal was structured, according to sources familiar with the transaction.

Shortly after she bought it, Tirollo listed it for sale, initially at about $16 million but soon dropping the price to $14.25 million.

Last year, a Bray family trust paid a recorded $15 million for a renovated third-floor condominium in the Kirkland House building at 100 Worth Ave., facing Palm Beach’s Midtown Beach. That condo is listed for sale at $15.95 million.

FROM THE 2022 ARCHIVES: Bray family's $15M purchase in Kirkland House is third-priciest beachfront condo sold in Palm Beach

An updated sales listing for the Brazilian Avenue townhouse the Bray family just bought shows Sotheby’s International Realty agent Tom Shaw handled both sides of the sale. He declined to comment about the transaction, and the buyers and seller could not be immediately reached.

Shaw also handled both sides of the transaction when Tirollo bought the townhouse.

Shaw’s listing mentioned the townhouse’s high-end kitchen, which includes Downsview cabinets, Franz Viegener faucets and appliances by Wolf and Sub Zero. The two-story residence also has a “floating” staircase, an elevator, wide-plank white-oak floors and an LED lighting system.

The duplex stands on a lot of about two-fifths of an acre. It is the second property west of South County Road and is within walking distance to a variety of shopping and dining venues, including those on Worth Avenue.

In 2010, Tirollo became CEO and, in 2015, assumed ownership of TRM Microwave, a Bedford, New Hampshire, company founded by her late husband, Tony Tirollo, according to the firm’s website. The company provides microwave systems and related products to the defense and space industries. The company was acquired in December 2020 by a division of Arcline Investment Management and is today known as Quantic TRM.

Bennie Bray founded CraftMark Bakery and Select Product Corp., a manufacturer and converter of paper products for use in restaurants, according to published reports. He also has been involved in the venture-capital and private-equity industries.

FROM THE VAULT: Bray trust, which bought Bernie Madoff's lakefront house in Palm Beach, resells it for $9 million.

Private-equity specialist flipped Palm Beach townhouse next door

The townhouse that shares a wall with the one that just sold is addressed as 220 Brazilian Ave. and occupies the west half of the duplex.

In late September, a limited liability company linked to private-equity specialist David Malm flipped the four-bedroom townhouse at 220 Brazilian Ave., selling it to financier Steven K. Hudson for a recorded $14.35 million. Agent Chris Leavitt of Douglas Elliman Real Estate represented the buyer and the seller in the September transaction.

In January, Malm’s ownership company had paid a recorded $12 million for the townhome, shortly after construction was completed. Leavitt represented Malm in the negotiations opposite his Douglas Elliman colleague Adam McPherson. The agents have declined to comment comment about the sale.

The townhouses were built Richard J. Kurtz, a longtime Palm Beach resident who heads The Kamson Corp., his family business. The company manages about 15,000 multi-family buildings in the Northeast and Florida.

Ken Parks of Strand Construction was the contractor for the townhouse project.

TOWNHOUSE FLIPPED IN PALM BEACH: Private-equity exec flips Palm Beach townhome on Brazilian Avenue for $14.35M to financier

The Bray family’s condo in the Kirkland house is listed for sale by agents Dana Koch and Paulette Koch of the Corcoran Group.

Corcoran agent Allison Wren represented the Bray family when they bought the three-bedroom condo in the Kirkland House last year from health-information technology entrepreneur Y. Michele Kang, who had carried out an extensive renovation. Kang was represented in that deal by agents Ann Summers and Caldwell Colt Robinson of Brown Harris Stevens.

Shortly before they Bray family bought the Kirkland House condo, a Bray trust sold — for a recorded $14.9 million — a four-bedroom house the family had owned since 2020 near the town-owned marina at 449 Australian Ave. The Brays paid a recorded $5.8 million for it in March 2020, courthouse records show.

Wren was the listing agent in the sale of the house on Australian Avenue. Sotheby’s International Realty agent Christine Gibbons, who also goes by the name Tina Roberts, represented the buyer, Helen M. Ziegler, in the deal on Australian Avenue.

SOLD IN 2022 IN PALM BEACH: Bray family, who sold old Madoff house, sells another Palm Beach home for $14.9 million

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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: Second townhouse in Palm Beach duplex flipped, this one for $13.86M