Palm Beach couple simultaneously sells rental house, buys nearby vacant lot on North End

Darrell Hofheinz, Palm Beach Daily News
The two wings of a house at 310 Plantation Road in Palm Beach wrap around the swimming pool. The house was just sold for a recorded $10.2 million by a seller who simultaneously bought a vacant lot nearby for $10.25 million.
The two wings of a house at 310 Plantation Road in Palm Beach wrap around the swimming pool. The house was just sold for a recorded $10.2 million by a seller who simultaneously bought a vacant lot nearby for $10.25 million.

In what can only be described as tidy real estate arrangement on the North End, a longtime Palm Beach couple sold a rental house on Plantation Road for $10.2 million and simultaneously bought a vacant lot just around the corner for $10.25 million, according to the prices recorded with the two deeds.

Palm Beach residents Donald R. Whitaker Jr. and wife Donna used a Virginia-registered limited liability company named Ocean Front Avenue 2 LLC to sell the four-bedroom house built in 1950 to John J. Burns III, the deed for that transaction indicates.

The house last changed hands in December 2020 for $4.9 million and was subsequently leased out as an investment property, according to property records and listings in the multiple listing service.

The Whitaker-controlled company that sold the house bought the vacant lot at 620 N. Lake Way from businessman Robert Lazarowitz and his ex-wife, Cobey Rapaport, who reside in Palm Beach Gardens, according to the deed. They had bought the Palm Beach property, which measures two-fifths of an acre, for a recorded $6.84 million in 2021 and then razed a house there.

Both deeds in this week’s transactions were recorded Jan. 10 by the Palm Beach County Clerk’s office.

A vacant lot measuring two-fifths of an acre, outlined in red in the foreground, just changed hands for a recorded $10.25 million at 620 N. Lake Way in Palm Beach.
A vacant lot measuring two-fifths of an acre, outlined in red in the foreground, just changed hands for a recorded $10.25 million at 620 N. Lake Way in Palm Beach.

BIDDING WAR? Palm Beach house on North End sells for $10.2 million after asking less

Agent Suzanne Frisbie of the Corcoran Group represented the Whitakers’ Ocean Front Avenue 2 LLC in the two deals. Frisbie also held the listing for the house on Plantation Road, which stands on a quarter-acre lot, several streets south of the Palm Beach Country Club.

Frisbie declined to provide specifics of the two sales and also declined comment on behalf of her clients. But she did say the vacant lot was “exceptional ” with a “high elevation.” The lot lies about 400 feet from the house on Plantation Road.

Broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate was the listing agent for the lot. He and his clients could not be reached for comment.

The mailing address of the limited liability company involved in both sales is listed on the deeds as a post office box in Virginia Beach linked to the Whitakers. Donald Whitaker also is affiliated in property records with a Virginia Beach house on Ocean Front Avenue, the same street included in the name of the entity that sold the Palm Beach house and bought the lot.

Donald Whitaker is president of his family company, Whitaker Distribution Inc., an agricultural pesticide business in Virginia Beach.

The Whitakers have owned a Palm Beach home on Ridgeview Drive since 2006, property records show. They have that house homesteaded as their primary residence in the latest Palm Beach County tax rolls.

The house that just sold for $10.2 million at 310 Plantation Road on the North End of Palm Beach was built in 1950 but has since been remodeled.
The house that just sold for $10.2 million at 310 Plantation Road on the North End of Palm Beach was built in 1950 but has since been remodeled.

Frisbie listed the house on Plantation Road — with 4,992 square feet of living space, inside and out — for $10.5 million in mid-June, the MLS shows.

Frisbie's sales listing described the house on Plantation Road as “beautifully appointed” and “nestled in a private cul-de-sac” with convenient access to the Lake Trail walking-and-bicycling path.

The layout of the Plantation Road home includes a first-floor primary bedroom suite with dual bathroom, a living room with a fireplace, a dining room and a well-equipped kitchen. Photographs show the two wings of the house wrap around the pool and patio.

FROM THE 2020 ARCHIVES: Updated Palm Beach house at 310 Plantation Road checked all the boxes for real estate investor

The deed shows the mailing address for the buyer of the house is in care of the Gunster law firm in West Palm Beach. Jones couldn’t be reached.

Angle’s listing for the vacant lot on North Lake Way entered the MLS in June 2022 at $16.9 million and had undergone several price reductions since that time. In May, the asking price dropped for the last time, to $10.95 million.

Outlined in red a vacant lot near the Intracoastal Waterway at 620 N. Lake Way in Palm Beach just sold for a recorded $10.25 million.
Outlined in red a vacant lot near the Intracoastal Waterway at 620 N. Lake Way in Palm Beach just sold for a recorded $10.25 million.

Lazarowitz and Rapaport were married when they bought the property on North Lake Way in July 2021. Rapaport had been previously married to the late Robert Rapaport, one of the original developers of the Century Village and Kings Point senior-living communities in Palm Beach County, who died in 2017. In early 2021, she sold — for just under $31 million — the Palm Beach lakeside estate she and her late husband had shared at 790 S. County Road. Lazarowitz joined her on the deed that sold that estate to a land trust.

dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com

FROM THE 2021 ARCHIVES Lakefront Rapaport house with landmarked element brings about $31 million, deed shows

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This is a developing story. Check back for any 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.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Couple sells house, buys vacant lot in Palm Beach. But for how much?

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