Did Australian mogul pay $150M for Palm Beach private isle? Wall Street Journal says so
Australian investments tycoon Michael Dorrell is the buyer behind the sale — recorded at $150 million — of Tarpon Island and its renovated-and-expanded mansion in Palm Beach, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing “people familiar with the situation.”
The Palm Beach Daily News has not independently confirmed that Dorrell controls the limited liability company that bought the town’s only private island in the sale that closed May 17.
But the town’s real estate community had been rife for weeks with talk that the buyer had ties to Australia. Those rumors may have been fueled, in part, by a photo of Tarpon Island that accompanied the sales listing in the multiple listing service showing an Australian flag flying at the property.
Dorrell is chairman, CEO and co-founder of Stonespeak, an investments firm that specializes in investing in infrastructure. The company has several offices worldwide, including New York City, London and Sydney, Australia, according to its website.
In an “exclusive” story published May 23, The Wall Street Journal said Dorrell declined to comment on the purchase via a Stonespeak spokesperson.
On May 17, the Palm Beach Daily News was the first media outlet to report the sale of Tarpon Island. The deed recorded May 20 shows it was bought by MCI Properties LLC, a Delaware-registered limited liability company.
The recorded price for Tarpon Island is the highest ever in Palm Beach for a property on the Intracoastal Waterway without additional ocean frontage. The sale is the most expensive residential transaction to close in Florida — and likely in the country — so far this year, records show.
Dorrell, who began his career in Australia, spent years at The Blackstone Group private-equity and investments firm before co-founding Stonespeak, according to the company's website.
Dorrell has other homes in New York City and Coral Gables, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Simultaneous with the Tarpon Island sale, an attorney for MCI Properties LLC signed a $75 million mortgage on the property, according to a document recorded May 20.
The identity of the true buyer behind MCI Properties LLC had remained cloaked in public records, thanks to Delaware’s corporate-privacy laws.
But the buyer was already in residence at the property before the sale closed, people familiar with the neighborhood previously had told the Palm Beach Daily News.
Affording panoramic views of the Intracoastal Waterway, Tarpon Island measures about 2.3 acres with a combined 1,163 feet of waterfront on all four sides. With 11 bedrooms, the two-story mansion on the artificial island has 28,618 total square feet of living space, inside and out, and a long list of amenities.
The renovation on Tarpon Island more than doubled the size of the original home on the east side of the property. The project turned that house into a guesthouse with a gym and an ultra-luxury fitness-and-beauty area. A new, much-larger addition with the main living areas was built onto the original house in a similar architectural style.
On the seller’s side, developer Todd Michael Glaser spearheaded the overhaul of the original 1930s-era house on the property through his eponymous Miami Beach-based real estate company. Glaser also put together the investment group that owned and sold the house through a Florida entity, 10 Tarpon Island LLC. The investors included Jonathan Fryd of Fryd Properties in Miami; developer Scott Robins of Scott Robins Cos. in Miami Beach; and Randall Realty Group’s Jim Randall of Manalapan, Glaser previously told the Daily News.
Glaser on May 23 declined to discuss the sale with the Palm Beach Daily News, just as he had done previously, citing a strict confidentiality agreement governing the transaction. He also declined to comment on behalf of his investors.
Real estate agents Suzanne Frisbie of the Corcoran Group and Chris Leavitt of Douglas Elliman Real Estate held the listing. Broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate also was involved on the sellers’ side.
Agent Margit Brandt of Premier Estate Properties represented the buyer.
Frisbie, Leavitt, Angle and Brandt again declined to comment on May 23 when asked by the Palm Beach Daily News about the Wall Street Journal article identifying Dorrell as the buyer.
Palm Beach County Courthouse records show MCI Properties LLC with a mailing address in care of its manager, estate-planning attorney Christian D. Curtis of Chaves Perlowitz Luftig in New York City. West Palm Beach attorney Brad McPherson is MCI Property LLC’s authorized signatory, records show.
Luftig never returned a phone message left by the Palm Beach Daily News at his office, and McPherson declined to comment on May 23, just as he had done when the deed and mortgage were recorded.
Tarpon Island was priced at $187.5 million when it sold, down from a high at one point of $218 million.
The property can be reached only by boat or by a picturesque bridge that connects it to the rest of Palm Beach.
Windows, patios, loggias, terraces and the dock on the south side of the house afford views straight down the Intracoastal Waterway for a little more than a mile to the Southern Boulevard Bridge, past former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club. The views also include houses on Everglades Island to the west and in Palm Beach’s Estate Section to the east.
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This is a developing story. Check back for any updates. Portions of this story appeared previously on PalmBeachDailyNews.com.
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: Wall Street Journal says Australian paid $150M for Palm Beach mansion
