Completed this year, a five-bedroom house developed on speculation has changed hands for a recorded $18.4 million on the North End of Palm Beach.
The never-lived-in house at 232 La Puerta Way was developed and sold by Peter Liam Burt, who was raised in Palm Beach, and his extended family. Burt said he initially worked on plans for the project with his late grandfather, longtime island resident and real estate investor Peter J. Callahan, who died in May 2024.
Callahan, who was once the majority shareholder of the National Enquirer and Star magazine, had invested in other residential projects in Palm Beach, but this was his grandson’s first foray into redevelopment on the island.
The developers paid $8.625 million for the property in March 2023 and razed a 1950s-era house there to make way for the new one.
Burt and family members sold the house through a Delaware-registered limited liability company named La Puerta Project LLC.
On the buyer’s side, private-wealth and estate-planning attorney David W. Thal of Holland & Knight acted in his professional capacity as trustee of the 232 La Puerta Land Trust. Thal works out of the law firm’s offices in New York City and Stamford, Connectictut, the company’s website shows, but the deed lists his mailing address in care of Holland & Knight’s office in downtown Miami.
Thal declined to comment. Privacy rules governing trusts cloak the identity of anyone else directly connected with the buyer’s side of the deal.
With 5,354 square feet, the house on La Puerta Way stands on a lot of nearly two-fifths of an acre, midway between the Palm Beach Country Club and the inlet at the north tip of the island.
The house was built by contractor Paul Wittmann of Wittmann Building Corp., who had worked with Callahan on other residential projects in Palm Beach. Architect Roger Janssen of Dailey Janssen Architects designed the West Indies-inspired residence, and the landscaping plans were created by Nievera Williams Design.
Burt’s wife, Alexandra Burt, of Ava Gray Interiors specified the interior finishes and staged the residence, which had been listed, furnished, at $18.9 million in late December.
Peter Liam Burt said the furnishings did not change hands in the just-closed deal.
The house had been under contract since the end of February. Burt said he had only been issued a certificate of occupancy, a condition that had to be met before the sale could close.
He said the scarcity of new houses on the island was a strong selling point for the property. The design team also delivered a handsome house that had been tailored to the needs of today’s buyers, he said.
“We never had to do a price reduction,” said Peter Liam Burt, a real estate agent with Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
He had co-listed the house with his father, Elliman agent Peter D. Burt.
Agents Liza Pulitzer and Whitney McGurk of Brown Harris Steves acted on behalf of the buyer. Pulitzer and McGurk could not immediately be reached for comment.
The house’s layout includes an office-and-den, a well-equipped kitchen, a two-car garage and a living room with a vaulted ceiling and a fireplace, the sales listing said.
The listing also mentioned that the house was designed for “seamless indoor-outdoor living” with “sliding impact-(resistant) glass doors (that) open to a spacious patio overlooking a private backyard oasis with lush landscaping.”
In a video about the property posted on Instagram, Pulitzer and McGurk mentioned several elements of the house and landscape that especially appealed to the buyers, whom they did not identify.
“One of the things our clients loved about this house is how it’s positioned on the lot. You have about 125 feet of depth, which gives a great garden and a great positioning of (the) pool,” McGurk said in the video.
They also mentioned that their clients liked the pitched roofs, the covered entry and the coquina stone used in the landscaping, as well as the property’s convenience to the beach and the Lake Trail walking-and-bicycling path.
The house replaced one built in 1950, the longtime home of the late Florence Harris Koontz, who had shared it with her late husband, James W. Koontz II. That house had been in her family for more than three decades.
Peter D. Burt and agent Richard Allison were involved in the 2023 sale on La Puerta Way, according to a previous story in the Palm Beach Daily News. At the time, Allison was with the Corcoran Group but today is affiliated with Douglas Elliman.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Never-lived-in ‘spec’ house fetches $18.4M on Palm Beach’s North End
Reporting by Darrell Hofheinz, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Darrell Hofheinz, Palm Beach Daily News | USA TODAY Network
