Richard, Ellen Rampell sell Palm Beach house for $14M; they bought it in 1985 for $225K

A longtime Palm Beach accountant and his wife have tallied up a hefty return after selling their house in the North End of town for a recorded $14 million — a 6,122% jump in price since they bought the property in 1985 for $225,000, according to the sale prices in courthouse records.

Richard and Ellen Rampell sold their three-bedroom house at 1186 N. Ocean Way for its land value in a just-closed, off-market deal, according to the deed recorded Aug. 4.

The buyer was commercial real estate entrepreneur Stan L. Johnson, who acted as trustee of an exempt trust in the name of his wife, Martha Lee Johnson. The Johnsons have a home at 244 Nightingale Trail, just down from the former Rampell property, Palm Beach County records show.

Built in 1958, the house the Rampells just sold stands on the corner of Nightingale Trail on a lot measuring about two-fifths of an acre. The property is the third one west of the beach.

The lot is one of the largest fronting Nightingale Trail, which real estate observers consider a prime residential street on the North End. The road stretches across the island between North Ocean Boulevard and the lakefront. The former Rampell home stands about midway between the Palm Beach Country Club and the inlet at the north end of the island.

The former Rampell house has 5,518 square feet of living space, inside and out, according to property records. Of that total, 4,191 square feet is air-conditioned space. The house is positioned on an angle on the lot, with a swimming pool on the west side of the property.

Douglas Elliman Real Estate’s Gary Pohrer confirmed he was the sole agent involved in the sale. The Rampells and the Johnsons could not be immediately reached.

The deed lists the Rampells with two mailing addresses at different condominiums, both of which changed hands via deeds recorded in late May and early June.

Ellen Rampell’s mailing address is at a three-bedroom penthouse she bought in May in her name for a recorded $1.9 million at Two City Plaza, 701 S. Olive Ave., in downtown West Palm Beach, property records show.

The deed lists Richard Rampell’s mailing address as Unit No. S-25, a three-bedroom condo at 2 N. Breakers Row in Palm Beach. That condo changed hands for a recorded $10.4 million in early June in a sale previously reported by the Palm Beach Daily News. On the buyer’s side of the June deal was Richard Rampell’s brother, Palm Beach attorney Paul Rampell, who acted as trustee of the 2N 25S Trust.

A certified public accountant, Richard Rampell is retired from Rampell & Rampell, the Palm Beach firm founded in 1959 by his father, Edward Rampell. In 2016, the firm merged with Miami-based accounting firm MBAF. Under Richard Rampell’s leadership, the company specialized in taxation and finance accounting related to real estate, professional service firms, retail and estate planning, among other areas.

In 1985, Stan Johnson founded the Stan Johnson Co., a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based real estate brokerage and advisory firm specializing in investment sales of so-called “net lease” commercial properties. His company was acquired in October 2022 by Minneapolis-based Northmarq, which provides capital-market resources to commercial real estate investors, according to a press release about the acquisition.

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In 2019, Richard and Ellen Rampell sold, for a recorded $10.2 million, the 17,561-square-foot office building that housed the family’s accounting firm at 223 Sunset Ave. The property today is home to Trevini Ristorante — a popular Italian eatery — and other businesses, including asset management and private equity firm Trian Partners. The latter bought the remodeled building for a recorded $23 million in 2021.

In the past two years, a number of older North End homes have changed hands after being in the same families for decades. In many cases, those families and their heirs saw their homes fetch prices that would have been unheard of before the Palm Beach real estate boom accompanying the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020.

The seller of the condo at 2 N. Breakers Row, which changed hands via a deed recorded June 1, was Rose Evangelista, who acted as co-trustee of a revocable trust in the name of the late Rosamond F. Isenberg. The MLS shows broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates handled both sides of the Breakers Row sale.

Ellen Rampell bought the penthouse in West Palm Beach from Howard and Sandra Teitelbaum of Jupiter, the deed recorded May 26 shows. Douglas Elliman Real Estate handled both sides of that sale, with agent Michelle Kirschner acting on behalf of the buyer and Christopher Cronican representing the sellers, the MLS shows.

The Johnsons bought their house at 244 Nightingale Trail for $3.26 million in August 2018 using an Oklahoma-registered limited liability company with a mailing address in care of Stan Johnson's company, property records show. In December 2021, that ownership company leased that house to the Johnsons, who have it homesteaded as their primary residence in the latest tax rolls.

The house at 244 Nightingale Trail is the fifth one west of the former Rampell home.

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This updated version of a previous story clarifies details about the buyer's side of the purchase of condominium No. S-25 at 2 N. Breakers Row, according to information on the deed recorded June 1, 2023. 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: Palm Beach home last sold in 1985 gets $14M, a 6,122% jump in value