Private-equity exec flips Palm Beach townhome for $14.35M to financier
The buyer who in January paid a recorded $12 million for a never-lived-in townhouse on Brazilian Avenue has flipped it for $14.35 million, the price documented with the latest deed.
A limited liability company linked to private-equity specialist David Malm sold the four-bedroom townhouse at 220 Brazilian Ave.
On the west side of a duplex developed on speculation, the townhome has 5,435 square feet of living space, inside and out, and shares a wall with an identical unit next door.
Financier Steven K. Hudson bought the townhouse, the deed recorded Sept. 19 shows. Hudson is CEO of ECN Capital, a Toronto-headquartered company that provides “prime credit portfolios” to more than 90 U.S. financial institutions, according to its website. He has bought and sold other real estate in Palm Beach, records show.
The duplex stands on a lot measuring about four-tenths of an acre. It is the second property west of South County Road in Midtown.
Malm is managing partner of Webster Equity Securities, which has offices in Palm Beach and Waltham, Massachusetts, according to its website. He owned and sold the townhouse through Skyfall I Domestic LLC, a Delaware-registered entity with a mailing address in Dover, Massachusetts, public records show.
Agent Chris Leavitt of Douglas Elliman Real Estate handled both sides of the sale, he confirmed. He declined further comment, and his clients could not immediately be reached.
The townhouse that just sold has fine finishes, an outdoor loggia, a summer kitchen and a private pool with a whirlpool spa. Both townhouses in the gated development have private two-car garages.
The interiors feature hardwood and shell-stone floors and a custom-outfitted Downsview kitchen with Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances. In addition to the elevator, a floating staircase leads to second floor, where the primary suite has two bathrooms and a terrace. The upper level also has three guest suites with ensuite bathrooms.
Leavitt listed the townhouse for sale in early February at $16.495 million and a few weeks later dropped the price to $15.45 million, the multiple listing service shows. In April, the townhouse listing took a hiatus from the MLS but was reactivated early this month to show that a sale was pending.
Architect Patrick Ryan O'Connell designed the two townhouses, which were built by contractor Ken Parks of Strand Construction.
The townhouses were built by real estate investor Richard J. Kurtz, a longtime resident who heads The Kamson Corp., his family business. The company manages about 15,000 multi-family buildings in the Northeast and Florida.
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Developer of Palm Beach townhouse project bought it in early stages of construction
Kurtz acquired the Brazilian Avenue property in 2020 when the townhouses were already in the initial phase of construction.
As reported at the time by the Palm Beach Daily News, Kurtz bought the project from a limited partnership associated in property records with the Pantalone real estate family of Toronto and Palm Beach developer and real estate agent Chris Deitz. Deitz was affiliated at the time with William Raveis South Florida but is today with Compass Florida.
The selling entity in the 2020 deal was linked to National Homes, a homebuilder headed by Rocco Pantalone and headquartered outside Toronto. The Pantalone family already had residential ties to Palm Beach.
In the 2020 sale, Kurtz was represented by Sotheby’s International Realty agent Tom Shaw, and Deitz represented the sellers.
Through a sales contract “assignment,” Kurtz ended up selling both townhouses — while they were still being built — to a still-unidentified buyer, according to sources familiar with the deal. That buyer then sold them separately to Malm and technology executive Wendy D. Tirollo, who bought the east unit, addressed as 218 Brazilian Ave. Those sales did not close until Kurtz completed construction early this year.
Shaw has Tirollo’s townhouse listed for sale at $14.25 million.
When Malm bought his townhouse earlier this year, he was represented by Leavitt and his Douglas Elliman colleague Adam McPherson.
Buyer Hudson has bought, sold other real estate in Palm Beach
Buyer Hudson is no stranger to townhouses in Palm Beach. In January, he sold, for $26.66 million, an oceanfront townhouse he had bought the previous June for about $1 million less, according to the prices recorded at the courthouse.
He had purchased the never-lived-in, five-bedroom townhouse at 466 S. Ocean Blvd. — in a quadplex on the site of the old Charley's Crab restaurant — for a recorded $25.58 million from its developer, Frisbie Group of Palm Beach.
The same month that Hudson bought the townhouse on South Ocean Boulevard, a company he controlled sold a single-family house at 134 Casa Bendita for a recorded $20.83 million. The buyer was a Colorado-based limited liability company linked to the Palm Beach address of investments manager Lewis "Lew" Sanders and his wife, Alice, at 615 N. County Road.
Leavitt represented Hudson when he sold the South Ocean Boulevard townhouse, negotiating opposite agents Kevin Condon and Cristina Condon of Sotheby's International Realty. When Hudson bought that same property in 2022, Leavitt acted on his behalf, with agent Suzanne Frisbie of the Corcoran Group representing the seller, her family's real estate investment company.
In Hudson's 2022 sale of the Casa Bendita house, Leavitt again represented him, with Douglas Elliman agent Vince Spadea Jr., acting on behalf of the trust that bought it.
dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com
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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: Private-equity exec Malm flips Palm Beach townhome in $14-million sale
