Palm Beach lakefront house fetches $23.75M after nearly two years on the market

A renovated 1960s-era lakefront estate at 1050 N. Lake Way in Palm Beach’s North End has sold for $23.75 million, nearly two years after the sellers first put it on the market. 

The Palm Beach Regency-style house, which has about 95 feet of frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway, had not changed hands in nearly 30 years.  

The property was last listed at $29 million when it sold, down from the $40.5-million asking price it carried when it entered the multiple listing service in February 2023. The asking price for the house on North Lake Way had dropped five times since the property was first listed, MLS records show. 

Over the past two years, asking prices for many properties in Palm Beach moderated in the wake of the real estate frenzy that accompanied the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic, real estate observers say.

The renovated house has five bedrooms and 8,564 square feet of living space, inside and out, according to the closed sales listing. 

The sellers were Alfred B. Engelberg and his wife, Gail, according to the deed recorded Jan. 31. They had paid $3.9 million for the property in 1995, courthouse records show.

The just-recorded deed lists the Engelbergs’ address in West Palm Beach as condominium No. 2003 at The Bristol the ultra-luxury tower at 1100 S. Flagler Drive. The have owned that condo since 2023, when they bought it for a recorded $19.8 million.

On the buyer’s side of the sale on North Lake Way was a land trust with the same mailing address as Cypress Forest Holdings LLC in White Plains, New York, the deed shows. Cypress Forest Holdings was founded by investor David Windreich, who serves as its managing partner, according to an online biographical sketch. He previously was co-founder and executive managing director of Och-Ziff Capital Management Group.

The buyer CFH Land Trust, which has initials matching that of Cypress Forest Holdings, is administered by trustee J. Scott Feeley, the deed shows. According to courthouse records, Feeley served as trustee when a different Windreich-linked trust in 2019 paid a recorded $9.4 million for a condo at The Bristol. Windreich and his wife, Christine Hikawa, have that unit, No. 1704, homesteaded as their primary residence, according to the latest Palm Beach County tax rolls.

The house the Engelbergs just sold stands on a lot of about four-tenths of an acre at the intersection of North Lake Way and Via Marila, the eighth street north of the Palm Beach Country Club. With a dock, the property offers views of the Intracoastal and the Safe Harbor Rybovich marina on the opposite side of the waterway. 

Alfred Engelberg spent some 40 years as a patent attorney, according to a biographical sketch online. He and his wife have donated millions of dollars through The Engelberg Foundation to beneficiaries, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The Engelberg Center for Innovation Law & Policy at New York University is named for Alfred Engelberg. 

Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate was the listing broker in the sale on North Lake Way. He declined to comment about the deal. 

Agent Gary Pohrer of Douglas Elliman Real Estate represented the buyer. He also declined to discuss the sale. 

At The Bristol, Pohrer has the Windreich-linked condo listed for sale at $18.65 million. The apartment has four bedrooms and 6,246 total square feet, the listing shows.

It’s unclear whether the the house on North Lake Way will be kept intact or razed to make way for something new.

The house has a floor plan “perfect for indoor and outdoor entertaining,” Angle’s sales listing said, with a living room, formal dining room and a “sunny and bright interior loggia.” The family room has a bar, while the office offers lake views. The second-floor primary suite with has an oversize terrace, the listing says.

There’s also a lakeside swimming pool.

Other features of the house include an elevator, a two-car garage and accommodations for household staff, according to the listing. 

Like many of their Palm Beach neighbors, the Engelbergs downsized to a condo at The Bristol, which stands at the entrance to the Royal Park Bridge that leads to Palm Beach. When they bought their apartment in May 2023, it had 5,227 interior square feet and another 1,966 square feet on its balcony, the MLS shows.

Agent Samantha Curry of Douglas Elliman Real Estate acted on the Engelbergs’ behalf when they bought the apartment at The Bristol. Curry also represented the seller, Teresa Mason, who acted as trustee of the Edgewater Financial Trust. 

When the Weinreich-related trust bought No. 1704 at The Bristol from the building’s developer in 2019, Pohrer represented the buyer. Curry handled the sellers’ side, the MLS shows, and Elliman agent Chris Leavitt was also involved as part of the building’s sales team, which also included Elliman agent Marisela Cotilla.

*

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. Emaildhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Support our journalism. Subscribe today.