Investments strategist Philip B. Korsant and his wife, Catherine, have sold Casa Giravento, their landmarked Palm Beach house built in 1927, for a recorded $43.25 million in Palm Beach’s Estate Section.
The Korsants had owned the ocean-block estate at 115 Via La Selva since 2017, when they paid about $14 million it, property records show. The Mediterranean-style house and its guesthouse stand on two-fifths of an acre at the corner of South County Road.
The buyer was businessman Thomas J. Swann III, who acted as trustee of a trust in his name. Swan and his trust own a Palm Beach condominium in an oceanfront building facing Midtown Beach, property records show.
The Korsants sold their estate as co-trustees of a revocable trust in the name of Philip Korsant.
Designed by noted society architect Maurice Fatio, the estate has eight bedrooms and 12,853 square feet of living space, inside and out, according to the sales listing prepared by the Corcoran Group. The two-story house also has a third-story tower room that affords views of the ocean across a neighboring property directly to the east.
The listing described the estate as having “modern amenities … juxtaposed with exceptional historical details,” including stenciled ceilings, an office with a copper ceiling, Cuban tile floors, fireplaces and detailed millwork.
The main house features a 30-by-20-foot living room and six bedroom suites, including a first-floor primary suite. Outdoors are a courtyard, lush gardens and a 50-by-25-foot swimming pool with a cabana. A one-bedroom staff apartment built in 1962 is above the two-car garage.
Corcoran Group agent Suzanne Frisbie represented the sellers, who had the residence priced at $49.5 million. It entered the market in November and landed under contract in early May, according to records in the Palm Beach Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service.
Frisbie had also represented the Korsants when they bought the house, negotiating at the time opposite her Corcoran colleagues Paulette Koch and Dana Koch.
In the sale that just closed, agent Patricia Mahaney of Sotheby’s international Realty acted on behalf of the buyer.
Swann III is co-CEO of Swan Group, a family-owned company that manufactures and distributes plumbing, heating and well-water products. The company is headquartered outside Boston.
The town designated the house a landmark in 1990. That means walls viewable from the street can’t be altered without the permission of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The exterior has many of the details for which the Mediterranean Revival style is famous, including a barrel-tile roof, a stucco façade, decorative stone elements, arched windows and metal window grilles.
The street-side façade features a rusticated-stone arched entry set into the tower, which is flanked by two-story wings. The rest of the house stretches to the north in a rough U-shape.
Frisbie’s sales listing mentioned a Fatio architectural signature: multiple loggias for entertaining and open-air dining.
The Korsants have ties to Connecticut. Philip Korsant is a private investor and a founding member of Long Light Capital, formerly known as Korsant Partners LLP, according to public records. He spent the bulk of his career in publishing and was president and chairman of Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. and Ziff Communications Co. He and his wife also have a family foundation in their names.
Swan and his trust own Penthouse 4 in the six-story oceanfront building informally known as One Royal Palm at 100 Royal Palm Way. On the northwest corner of the building, the three-bedroom condo has 2,728 square feet of interior space and a 3,000-square-foot terrace. Mahaney has the apartment listed for sale at $12.5 million, according to the multiple listing service.
The penthouse was for many years the home of Swan’s late parents, Helen Swan and Thomas Swan Jr.
The house Swan just bought was built for Warner L. Jones and later owned by Detroit real estate tycoon Wesson Seyburn and his wife, Winifred Dodge Seyburn. The Seyburn family for more than four decades spent holidays at the residence, according to architectural historian Augustus Mayhew. Winifred Dodge Seyburn’s father was pioneering auto manufacturer John Dodge.
“In what was (Palm Beach’s) version of ‘Dodge City,’ Mrs. Seyburn’s sister, Isabel Dodge Sloane, lived nearby at Concha Marina and her aunt, Mrs. Horace E. Dodge, owned Playa Riente, regarded as (society architect) Addison Mizner’s most magnificent house. Upon Mrs. Seyburn’s death in 1980, her estate sold the Via la Selva property,” Mayhew wrote in a 2010 article for New York Social Diary.
The Korsants bought the house from Dr. James Edward Niedel and his wife, Selaine, property records show.
This is a developing story. Check back for any 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_Hofhe
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Landmarked 99-year-old house sells for $43.25 million in Palm Beach
Reporting by Darrell Hofheinz, dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com / Palm Beach Daily News
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By Darrell Hofheinz, dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com | USA TODAY Network
