$15M sale in Kirkland House is third-priciest beachfront condo sold in Palm Beach

Just sold for a recorded $15 million, a condominium in Midtown is the third-priciest oceanfront apartment ever to sell in Palm Beach.

Health-information technology entrepreneur Y. Michele Kang sold Unit 3A at the Kirkland House, 101 Worth Ave., the deed shows. She had owned the apartment since September 2020, when she paid a recorded $5.5 million for it. Kang later carried out an extensive renovation, courthouse and building records show.

The buyers listed on the deed recorded June 21 were Bennie M. and Stephanie Chantillis Bray, who acted as trustees of the Bray Family Revocable Trust, property records show. The Dallas-based Bray family has invested in and sold other properties in Palm Beach, including the former home of the late Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, property records show.

Last week, the Brays sold — for a recorded $14.9 million — a four-bedroom house they had owned since 2020 near the town-owned marina at 449 Australian Ave., as previously reported in the Palm Beach Daily News. The Brays paid a recorded $5.8 million for it in March 2020, courthouse records show.

Condo buyers just sold house: Bray family, who sold old Madoff house, sells another Palm Beach home on Australian Avenue for $14.9 million

Palm Beach condo just sold has five balconies

With sweeping views of the ocean, the corner apartment the Brays just bought at the Kirkland House has a total of 4,130 square feet, the local multiple listing service shows. Based on the recorded price, the buyer paid $3,632 per square foot for the apartment.

With five balconies, the condo slices through the building from east to west on the north side of the third floor.

The condo sale was first reported June 16 in the multiple listing service, a day after the the deal closed, although it took a few days for the deed to be recorded at the courthouse.

Built in 1974, the Kirkland House is a boutique building with 20 units on the northwest corner of South Ocean Boulevard. Condos in the building rarely hit the market, and when they do, they tend to fetch premium prices, the MLS shows.

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Agents Ann Summers and Caldwell Colt Robinson of Brown Harris Stevens held the listing, which went active in the MLS in January, initially with a price of $19.95 million but reduced by $2 million in late March.

Summers declined to comment about specifics of the sale but said the condominium was one of the most “beautiful and bright” she has ever represented.

“I’m going to miss showing it (to would-be buyers). I just loved seeing the ocean from it,” Summers said.

Agent Allison Wren of the Corcoran Group represented the Brays, the MLS shows.

Eye-catching listing: Kirkland House condo lists at $19.95 million, almost a record asking price in Palm Beach

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The Brown Harris Stevens’ sales listing described the apartment as a “one-of-a-kind offering” with white Thassos marble floors and a neutral color palette. The layout includes a “palatial” master suite with two bathrooms and grandly scaled living and dining areas.

Kang founded and is CEO of Cognosante, which provides technology products and services to help federal and state government agencies, including the U.S. military, manage health and safety information. She also founded Cognosante Ventures, which focuses on health information-technology startups. The companies are based in Falls Church, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C.

Kang also is part of the ownership group of the Washington Spirit professional soccer team.

Summers was on the buyer’s side of the 2020 sale opposite Sotheby’s International Realty agents Gary Little and Lynn Warren.

Is Kang behind trust that bought lakeside estate in Palm Beach?

Kang’s address on the just-recorded deed is listed as 790 S. County Road in Palm Beach. That seven-bedroom lakeside estate last changed hands for just under $31 million in February 2021 via a deed that listed the buyer as a land trust for which a Palm Beach attorney served as trustee. Summers acted for the buyer in that deal. Broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate represented the seller, Cobey W. Rapaport, who was joined on the deed by her husband, Robert Lazarowitz. Summers and Angle previously declined to discuss the transaction.

About a mile south of Worth Avenue, the estate on South County Road measures an acre with 146 feet of lake frontage. Built in the 1990s, the main house has about 17,000 square feet of living space, inside and out, records show, and there’s also a landmarked carriage house that dates to 1931.

Estate sold last year on S. County Road: Lakefront house with landmarked element brings about $31M, deed shows

Other big condo sales

The two Palm Beach oceanfront condominiums that have sold for more than the one that just changed hands were at 2 N. Breakers Row, a concierge-style development on property owned by The Breakers.

The most expensive seaside sale was recorded at $17.68 million in early November for a Breakers Row penthouse, No. 4S. That condo has three bedrooms and 4,160 square feet. Agent Chris Deitz of Compass Florida represented the Breakers Row seller, Shirley Fennell as trustee of a trust. Agent Alison Newton of Douglas Elliman Real Estate represented the Breakers Row buyers, Deborah A. Turner, who acted as trustee of a revocable trust; and the Turner 2021 Family Trust, for which Pinnacle Bank of Nashville, Tennessee, serves as trustee.

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The other top-dollar Breakers Row sale was recorded at $15.5 million in March 2017 for a cabana and a three-bedroom condo, No. S44, with 3,761 total square feet. Palm Beacher and real estate investor Robert A. Meister sold the condo to investment banker Richard A. Friedman, courthouse records show. Broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens handled both sides of that deal.

Other Palm Beach condominiums have sold for more than the top-priced unit on 2 N. Breakers Row, but they were not on the ocean.

Brays sold former Madoff house in 2013

Wren acted for the Brays in the sale last week on Australian Ave., negotiating  opposite Sotheby’s International Realty agent Christine Gibbons, who also goes by the name Tina Roberts. In that sale, the buyer was Helen M. Ziegler, the deed shows. Wren said she has been instructed by her clients not to comment on any transactions involving them, and Gibbons could not be reached for comment.

In 2010, a different trust associated with the Bray family paid a recorded $5.65 million for the lakefront house owned for years by Madoff on North Lake Way, with proceeds from the sale going to victims of the disgraced financier’s massive investment swindle. After the sale, which was overseen by federal marshals, work crews renovated the property and a trustee for the Bray trust sold it in 2013 for a recorded $9.07 million.

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This story was updated June 23, 2022 — the day the deed was recorded for the sale of Unit 3A at 101 Worth Ave. — to include information about the buyers. This is a developing story. Check back for 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 [email protected], call (561) 820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach seaside condo goes for $15M, third priciest sale on island