Welcome to The Dirt! I’m real estate, weather and critter reporter Kimberly Miller with the latest developments in the sizzling market.
Does anyone else feel like we’re spiraling into some kind of exclusive cosmopolitan Wizard of Oz / gilded renaissance world where home sales under $10 million are shrugged off with a “meh”, we have our own salmon-hued Emerald Palace, and we’re all just trying to get past the bouncer at the velvet rope of success? Just me? Huh.
Well you may feel differently when you read senior business reporter Alexandra Clough’s in depth stories this week about the highest of high-end amenities at local hotels and the increase in private clubs where last night’s hand stamp from Dave & Buster’s just isn’t going to cut it. (I don’t know if D&B stamps hands, but you remember the ol’ hand stamp. I know you do.)
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Also this week, big-gun developers duke it out over condos in West Palm Beach, a waterfront estate fetches $25.4 million on Everglades Island, which is nothing to meh about, and a python hunter saves a threatened bird that looks like a Dr. Seuss character. Not real estate, I know, but see intro above.
Private clubs follow the wealth to Palm Beach County
Rendering of the Bellini Rooftop Club, a private social club slated for the top of the Mr. C Hotel & Residences coming to West Palm Beach.
Private clubs are the new cool thing in West Palm Beach with people accustomed to having exclusive spaces in bustling northern cities looking for something similar but with, like, no snow. Clubs are being planned at Nora, the $1 billion dining and entertainment district, Mr. C Hotel & Residences, and the Hotel Biba, which is currently under renovation but has plans for a Biba Social club.
Quick question though. Will there be scholarships for the less fortunate to these private clubs and will decades-old community service count toward admission? Asking for a friend.
Owners of older condominiums cashing in, but some caught in ‘game of chicken’
Southbridge Condominium, 3915 South Flagler Drive, West Palm Beach
There is so much drama in the condominium universe — condoverse? — these days with older units facing hefty repair costs so they don’t fall down, and waterfront units with a view of Mar-a-Lago being chased like a mango White Claw at a sorority house.
Some unsuspecting, or fully suspecting, owners at the Southbridge Condominium are finding themselves caught between two developers that both want the property. There’s suspense and intrigue and angst and a lot of money being offered. Who will win? Stay tuned.
Home sells on poshest of posh Everglades Island for $25.4 million
Just sold for a recorded $25.4 million, a house at 550 Island Drive stands on the east side of Everglades Island and has 150 feet of frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway.
Someone really wanted a renovated house on Everglades Island, paying above the $24.9 million asking price by half-a-million dollars and it’s probably warranted for the thoroughly updated 1955 house on the unique island west of the well known island of Palm Beach.
Cornelia “Cornie” Thornburgh and her husband Richard renovated the home. Jacqueline Albarran of SKA Architect+Planners to designed the plans. Who knew that a spit of scrubby sand formerly called Cabbage Island would one day be home to such affluence? Fetch my crystal ball, please.
Live lightly.
Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate, weather, and the environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm Beach evolves as affluence continues a migration to Palm Beach County