Three Palm Beach Buildings Sell In Deals Totaling $58 Million

Longtime Worth Avenue property owner and landlord Burt Handelsman has parted with a trio of commercial properties — including a pair of adjacent buildings on the Avenue and one nearby — in deals totaling $58 million.

Records show Colorado real estate investor and developer Mark Hunt is on the buyer’s side of the off-market sales.

Sold this week through Handelsman-linked ownership companies were 219 Worth Ave., where the tenants include Ta-boo and two jewelry stores; a retail building next door at 225 Worth Ave.; and the restaurant-and-office building that houses BrickTop’s at 375 S. County Road.

The sales came in the wake of Handelsman’s contentious divorce, finalized in April 2019, from his wife of 68 years, Lucille “Lovey” Handelsman. At stake was an estimated $550 million worth of marital assets, with a number of Worth Avenue properties awarded to Lucille Handelsman. In the divorce settlement, Burt Handelsman retained ownership of other properties in the Worth Avenue area, including the Apollo Parking Lot off Hibiscus Avenue. An appeal in the divorce settlement is pending.

Built in 1929, the building at 219 Worth Ave. was sold for a recorded $23.76 million by Burt Handelsman’s Love LLC, a New York limited liability company that is part of his Love Realty Group. The building has 12,904 total square feet, property records show. Love LLC paid $15.375 million for the property in 1998, courthouse records show. In addition to Ta-boo, the tenant roster includes Hamilton Jewelers, Kim Renk, Graff jewelry boutique and Carrie-Me Couture.

A different Handelsman entity, Love is Next Door LLC, sold the building next door at 225 Worth Ave. for a recorded at $18.04 million. Burt Handelsman’s Florida limited liability company paid a recorded $28.1 million for it in September 2013. Records show the building was built in 1950 and has 9,932 square feet. Apparel boutique tenants there include J. McLaughlin and Jackie Rogers. Brooks Brothers had been a longtime tenant there but shuttered its doors last year.

The property at 375 S. County Road, on a half-acre lot, was sold for a recorded $16.2 million by 375 South County Associates, a Florida joint venture between two of Burt Handelsman’s companies. It last changed hands in 1983 for $2.4 million. Stretching between Peruvian and Chilean avenues, the building was completed in 1984 and has 16,692 square feet and an underground parking garage. BrickTop’s has been its anchor since the chain restaurant opened in the old Amici’s Ristorante site in January 2014. Other tenants include Brintz Gallery and Wadia Associates, an architectural firm.  The company that just sold the building took possession of it in 1987 for an undisclosed amount, courthouse records show.

The BrickTop’s building stands directly across Peruvian Avenue from the U.S. Postal Service building at 401 S. County Road, which was sold by Handelsman’s bankruptcy trustee in January. The January deal also included two properties immediately south of the post office  — a building at 411 S. County Road, where the anchor tenant is a branch of JPMorgan Chase bank; and a business condominium leased to the Tourneau watch store on the northeast corner of South County Road.

Broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates represented Handelsman in the sales.

Triplet Acquisitions of New York City handled the buyer’s side of the transactions.

 

Source:  Palm Beach Daily