Table of Contents
Billionaire casino and hotel magnate Steve Wynn — who already owns two estates in Palm Beach — is linked to the buyer’s side of a $49-million deal that just closed on the opposite end of the island for a lakefront mansion on North Lake Way, records show.
In the off-market sale, a Wynn-affiliated company bought the house at 1350 N. Lake Way from developer Pat Carney and his wife, Lillian, who built it as a custom home for themselves about eight years ago. The sale came just three weeks after the Carneys sold — for a recorded $68.4 million — their recently completed oceanfront Palm Beach mansion to a company controlled by hedge-fund billionaire David Tepper and his wife, Nicole.
Steve Wynn’s other two houses are in the Estate Section. At the tail end of last year, a company linked to Wynn, the former head of Wynn Resorts, paid $18.4 million for a never-lived-in lakeside house developed on speculation at 235 Via Vizcaya.
Wynn’s primary home in Palm Beach is a much larger ocean-to-lake estate at 1960 S. Ocean Blvd., which he shares with wife Andrea and has homesteaded in the latest tax rolls. He paid $43 million for that estate in 2019, property records show.
The Carneys plan to build themselves another house in Palm Beach, Pat Carney said Friday. He declined further comment.
The sale marks the highest price ever paid for a lakefront property north of the Palm Beach Country Club, courthouse records show.
The Carneys had originally planned to move into the oceanfront house they sold to the Teppers and sell the lakefront home, according to sources familiar with the transactions. But their plans changed.
The Bermuda-style house the Carneys just sold on North Lake Way stands on a lot with 156 feet of lake frontage and a deepwater dock. Measuring eight-tenths of an acre, the property is at the intersection of Dolphin Road, nine streets south of the inlet.
The lakefront house has six bedroom suites, according to town records. There are two garages, each with a suite for guests or household staff above it. In all, the house has 17,032 square feet of living space, inside and out. Completed in 2013, the house was designed by Smith and Moore Architects and built by Mark Timothy Inc.
Agent Jim McCann of Premier Estate properties confirmed he was the sole agent involved in the sale on North Lake Way. He declined further comment.
Steve Wynn could not be immediately reached.
More: Billionaire Tepper on buyer’s side of Carneys’ oceanfnront mansion sale, sources say.
The Carneys in 2011 used an ownership company to buy the land on North Lake Way for $5.2 million.
The house they built has a gated driveway that opens to an expansive motor court. Covered loggias fitted with retractable screens face the lakeside pool and the separate whirlpool spa. There’s also a full-house generator.
Pat Carney is chairman and CEO of Claremont Cos., a real estate investment, development and asset-management company based in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. The lakefront house in Palm Beach was their primary residence, although they spend summers in Massachusetts, Pat Carney previously told the Daily News.
Wynn’s local real estate deals
Steve Wynn, an art collector and dealer, has a net worth of $3.2 billion, according to Forbes. For more than a year, he has run a private gallery on the second floor of The Esplanade on Worth Avenue, catering to high-end collectors.
Wynn for years served as chairman and CEO of Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts until his resignation in February 2018 amid allegations of sexual misconduct — including coercing some female employees into sexual activity — over many years. He has denied the allegations. In July, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Wynn Resorts Ltd. from nine anonymous women who claim they were sexually harassed by Wynn.
More: EXCLUSIVE: Casino billionaire Steve Wynn rolls dice on $18.4M house buy, sources confirm
The Mediterranean-style house Wynn’s company bought on Via Vizcaya in December has four bedrooms and 7,272 total square feet. It was developed on speculation by Palm Beach residents Eduard and Missy de Guardiola. The house stands on an irregularly shaped lot measuring a little more than a third of an acre with 155 feet of waterfront. McCann was the sole agent involved in its sale.
The Wynns’ main estate on South Ocean Boulevard also has Mediterranean-style architecture. In all, the residence and a guesthouse have 33,069 total square feet on a 2.25-acre lot just north of Sloan’s Curve. The property has 274 feet of water frontage on two sides.
More: Casino mogul Steve Wynn linked to $43M purchase of Palm Beach estate
A Wynn-controlled company bought the estate on South Ocean Boulevard in August 2019 from an entity linked to the family of Venezuelan banker and polo patron Victor Vargas. Agent Cristina Condon of Sotheby’s International Realty had the listing when the house sold, and the buyer’s agent was never identified.
Wynn first got involved in Palm Beach real estate in 2014, when he bought a mostly vacant lakeside lot at 1350 S. Ocean Blvd. in a $13.44-million deal brokered by broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates. About four years later, Wynn sold that Billionaires Row lot for a recorded $20.27 million, with Moens acting on his behalf opposite Corcoran Group agents Dana Koch and Paulette Koch.
This week’s deed shows that Wynn used a Florida-registered limited liability company named 1350 North Lake Holdings to buy the property at 1350 N. Lake Way.
More: EXCLUSIVE: Steve Wynn sells lot in Palm Beach for more than $20 million, deed shows
About the Teppers’ mansion
The Teppers bought the Carney’s seaside mansion, furnished, using a limited liability named after the property’s address at 905 N. Ocean Blvd. As much as $73 million reportedly changed hands the off-market deal, but courthouse records reflect the lower number.
The sale of the seven-bedroom oceanfront house was one of the highest recorded prices ever paid for a property north of the Palm Beach Country Club. With about 19,000 square feet of living space, inside and out, the house was completed last year on a direct-beachfront lot with about 125 feet of shoreline. The house has about 12,000 square feet of interior space.
The Teppers’ new house is the second one north of the coastal road’s curve around the north end of the Palm Beach Country Club. It stands on a little more than an acre.
David Tepper, who owns the Carolina Panthers football team, founded and heads Appaloosa Management, a global hedge fund based in Miami Beach.
Pat Carney no stranger to big deals
Pat Carney has developed and sold a number of never-lived-in homes in Palm Beach. In March 2016 he sold for nearly $43.7 million a beachfront house he developed on speculation at 1695 N. Ocean Way. The sale marked the third never-lived-in, furnished mansion developed by Carney to change hands within the previous seven months. In all, those three sales — two in Palm Beach and one in nearby Manalapan — totaled $108.1 million.
McCann — then of the Corcoran Group but today at Premier Estate Properties — represented Carney in all of those sales.
In the sale at 1695 N. Ocean Way, hedge-fund manager Ken Tropin was behind the entity that bought the house. Tropin was represented by agent Suzanne Frisbie, who later left the Corcoran Group to join McCann at Premier Estate Properties.
From the archives: Oceanfront ‘spec’ mansion developed by Carney sells for nearly $44 million
The other two spec homes sold within the seven-month period by Carney were a waterfront house in Manalapan at 800 S. Ocean Blvd., which was bought by a Delaware-registered limited liability company for $33 million in September 2015; and a lakefront house in Palm Beach at 390 N. Lake Way, which sold in December 2015 for $31.4 million. In the latter deal, broker Steve Hall of Hall Real Estate acted on behalf of the buyer, an entity linked to Bain Capital/Private Equity executive Paul Edgerley and his wife, Sandra.
From the archives: Delaware entity pays $33M for Carney’s new Manalapan estate
*
This story was updated March 15, 20201, to add information about the buyer’s side of the sale at 1350 N. Lake Way. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
@PBDN_hofheinz