UPDATE: Sea-to-lake estate near Palm Beach sells for land-value at $16.5 million

Darrell Hofheinz, Palm Beach Daily News
Updated ·4 min read
A path leads through dune vegetation to the ocean at a Manalapan estate at 3060 S. Ocean Blvd., which just sold for $16.5 million, the price reported in the multiple listing service.
A path leads through dune vegetation to the ocean at a Manalapan estate at 3060 S. Ocean Blvd., which just sold for $16.5 million, the price reported in the multiple listing service.

A Michigan-based entrepreneur in the medical and technology sectors has bought an ocean-to-lake estate that was home to a former Manalapan mayor, the late Dr. Gerald K. Shortz. The property on the far south end of town changed hands for a recorded $16.5 million after being marketed for its land value.

The sale price represents a 4,614% increase in value since the estate at 3060 S. Ocean Blvd. last sold in 1988 for $350,000 in the wealthy town south of Palm Beach.

The deed shows Jorey Chernett of Michigan’s Bloomfield Township bought the 1.4-acre property, the fifth lot north of the Boynton Beach Inlet. The estate has about 100 feet of oceanfront and the same amount on water frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway.

The two-story, three-bedroom house on the property was built on the lakefront parcel in 1942 with 3,292 square feet of living space, inside and out.

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

An ocean-to-lake estate at 3060 S. Ocean Blvd in Manalapan, seen here in the center with a brown dock in the Intracoastal Waterway, has sold at a land-value price of $16.5 million.
An ocean-to-lake estate at 3060 S. Ocean Blvd in Manalapan, seen here in the center with a brown dock in the Intracoastal Waterway, has sold at a land-value price of $16.5 million.

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The bulk of the estate Chernett just bought lies on the ocean side of South Ocean Boulevard, which crosses the property. A path on the ocean parcel leads through dense dune vegetation to the beach.

The sales listing described the property as “a coveted opportunity to build your home on the east side” of the coastal road facing the Atlantic.

The property also has a dock on the Intracoastal Waterway.

With a background in venture capitalism and investment banking, Chernett founded and is CEO of Authentic4D, an FDA-approved medical software and “teleradiology” company that serves the medical- and insurance-claims and litigation-management industries, according to an online biographical sketch. He also is founder and CEO of Clearpath, which provides advanced-technology services to the medical-imaging industry. He previously led technology companies involved in the dental industry, and those entities sold to investors including 3M.

Chernett owns no other property in Palm Beach under his name, according to an online search of courthouse records.

Shortz, who died in October at age 86, was an orthopedic surgeon with a practice in Delray Beach. In addition to his service as mayor from 1988 to 2002, he served as vice mayor and was a chairman and a vice chairman of the Zoning Commission.

When Shortz bought the estate in August 1988, he was married to the late Kathryn H. Shortz but the couple later divorced. She died in 2013.

On the sellers’ side were Shortz’s children — Steven Kent Shortz and Kathryn Bretton Utz — and his girlfriend Kathleen McKenzie Poole. They signed the deed “individually” and as successor co-trustees of the Gerald Kent Shortz Living Trust. The sale closed July 11, according to the multiple listing service.

Just sold for its land value at $16.5 million, an estate at 3060 S. Ocean Blvd. offers views of the Intracoastal Waterway from its dock. The estate is the fifth property north of the Boynton Beach Inlet.
Just sold for its land value at $16.5 million, an estate at 3060 S. Ocean Blvd. offers views of the Intracoastal Waterway from its dock. The estate is the fifth property north of the Boynton Beach Inlet.

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Agent Shelly Newman of William Raveis South Florida was the listing agent. The property entered the market in November at $17.9 million, and that price never wavered, the MLS shows.

Agent Vince Spadea of Douglas Elliman Real Estate represented the buyer.

Newman and Spadea declined to comment about the sale. Chernett and the co-trustees on the sellers’ side could not be reached.

Newman’s listing said town zoning rules would allow a buyer to build on a house on either the ocean side of the property or the lakefront. A cabana would also be allowed.

“The rectangular symmetry of this property provides an open pallette for design,” Newman’s listing said.

An aerial photo shows the Manalapan estate, outlined in red at the top, that just sold for $16.5 million. The 1.3-acre estate stretches between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway near the Boynton Beach Inlet.
An aerial photo shows the Manalapan estate, outlined in red at the top, that just sold for $16.5 million. The 1.3-acre estate stretches between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway near the Boynton Beach Inlet.

The listing also described the estate as boater’s “dream” because of its proximity to the inlet.

Like all Manalapan properties, the property was sold with a gratis membership to the La Coquille Club, part of the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa, which lies about a half-mile north of the estate.

The former Shortz property is the second lot south of the massive estate that Oracle software owner Larry Ellison bought from Netscape co-founder James Clark last year for a recorded $173 million, a deal that set a new residential record in the state.

Although Manalapan’s real estate market has cooled over the past year, real estate prices in the island town rose sharply after the start of 2021. That’s in part because some homebuyers bought in Manalapan after they couldn’t find waterfront estates in Palm Beach, where housing inventory shrank dramatically during the real estate boom sparked by the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, real estate observers say.

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This story was updated July 25, 2023, to add information about the buyer's side of the sale of 3060 S. Ocean Blvd., based on the deed recorded July 21, 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: Land-value deal: Waterfront home near Palm Beach sells for millions