UPDATE: Another new home fetches big bucks in Palm Beach — but how much this time?

Another new house has changed hands for big bucks on the North End of Palm Beach, this one a lakefront property that just sold for $30.72 million at 1404 N. Lake Way.

It’s the third never-lived-in waterfront home to sell since the end of August for more than $29 million. 

Jason Capello of Greenwich, Connecticut, bought the house, according to the deedrecorded Friday. A Greenwich resident by that name has a professional resume that includes experience in the hedge-fund industry and tenure as chief investment officer of Mgate Capital LLC, a private New York City-based company focused on public equities, real estate and venture capital, according to a brief online biographical sketch. He has also been affiliated with CJC Holdings II LLC of Greenwich, public records show.

With construction all but complete, the five-bedroom, two-story house on North Lake Way encompasses 9,263-square feet of living space, inside and out, town records show. It stands on a lot measuring about a half-acre with 110 feet on the Intracoastal Waterway.

Property records show financier and real estate investor George P. Taylor, who goes by Beau, co-manages 1404Northlake LLC, the limited liability that apparently just sold the property.

The traditional-style house started out as a speculative development but later became a custom home for Taylor, according to the property’s listing agent, Christopher Deitz, who was with William Raveis South Florida when the sale closed Sept. 10 but has since joined Compass Florida.

While the house was being built, Taylor and his wife, Beth, saw the Palm Beach real estate market heat up and prices escalate for new homes.

“They planned on building this house for themselves,” Deitz said. “But they got an offer they couldn’t refuse.” 

Deitz declined to discuss specifics of the transaction or provide any other information about the parties involved.

Agents Paulette Koch and Dana Koch of the Corcoran Group represented the buyer's side of the sale. Dana Koch declined to comment about the deal, and Capello couldn’t be reached.

Deitz initially listed the house for sale in November at $32.5 million, the MLS shows. The sale was first reported Monday in the Palm Beach Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service

Property last sold for $8.9 million

With residential ties to Palm Beach and Greenwich, George Taylor co-managed the selling entity with fellow businessman and financier Nedim Soylemez, state business records show. That Florida-registered company paid a recorded $8.9 million for the property about three years ago, according to Palm Beach County Courthouse records.

Soylemez and George Taylor are affiliated with Lion’s View Partners LLC and related companies with similar names, all of which have an address at Suite 200 at 125 Worth Ave.  The two men also control a company that has built a new oceanview house on speculation at 1030 S. Ocean Blvd. in the Estate Section, records show.

George Taylor and Soylemez have professional resumes that include work in the commodities and hedge-fund industries. Taylor also was a managing director of Credit Suisse and worked in the company’s commodities divisions, according to a brief online biographical sketch.

Soylemez also co-manages a different company that this year bought a vacant beachfront property on Ocean Lane on the North End on behalf of an unidentified client, said Deitz, who was involved in the transaction. A proposed mansion for that parcel is under review by the Architectural Commission.  

New dock can handle a 125-foot yacht 

The house that just sold on North Lake Way had been under contract since early May, the MLS shows. The property lies about four-tenths of a mile south of the inlet between Reef Road and Esplanade Way. 

The property has water deep enough to accommodate a yacht up to 125 feet in length on its new T-shaped dock, according to the sales listing. That feature might have been a prime selling point, because houses with deepwater docks rarely enter the market in Palm Beach. Lately they have become even rarer, thanks to the tightened inventory of homes as a result of the island’s sellers’ market.

Architect Harold Smith of Smith and Moore Architects designed the house. It features a well-equipped kitchen, media room, wine-storage area and “modern transitional elements throughout” the house, according to its sales listing.  

“Enjoy the fabulous sunsets from your master suite terrace, sitting high above the lake,” the listing said.  

House replaced smaller one built in 1950s

The sellers bought the property in October 2018, when Deitz handled the buyer’s side. In that deal, listing agent Suzanne Frisbie of the Corcoran Group represented a real estate investment group that had bought the property five months earlier for a recorded $8.25 million in a private sale. Frisbie’s clients included Chicago and Palm Beach real estate developer and investor Fred Latsko, businessman Suren Hovsepian and West Palm Beach resident Melvin Kaftan, public records showed.

From the archives: Lakefront house at 1404 N. Lake Way sells for $8.9 million, OK’d for demolition

The previous owners — Anita Lorello and her late husband, Dr. Robert J. Lorello — had for years lived on the property in an extensively renovated Mediterranean-style house designed in 1950 by a noted society architect, the late John L. Volk.

The new house is more than double the size of the old one, which measured 4,893 square feet.

Other Palm Beach projects in the works

Deitz has been the listing agent for the other house under development by Soylemez and George Taylor's ownership company at 1030 S. Ocean Blvd. That house was built on property that changed hands for $7.6 million in 2018, when Deitz represented the buyer opposite agent Stephen Ploof of Linda Gary Real Estate. Deitz said the house is being listed for sale at $49.5 million in the local multiple listing service.

Across town on the North End, Soylemez and real estate attorney Maura Ziska — as co-managers of a limited liability company — in January paid a recorded $20.2 million for a vacant half-acre lot at 7 Ocean Lane.

Soylemez’s company bought the lot on Ocean Lane from Palm Beacher and Sotheby’s International Realty agent Janina K. “Asha” Radtke, who acted as trustee of a revocable trust in her name. Deitz represented the buyer in that deal.  

In July the Architectural Commission voted unanimously to have architect Smith overhaul — and scale down — the design of a contemporary house he drew up for the lot on Ocean Lane. The revised project is on the preliminary agenda when the commission meets Sept. 29. 

dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com

@PBDN_hofheinz

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This story was updated Sept. 17, 2021, the day the deed was recorded for the sale of 1404 N. Lake Way, to include information about the buyer. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist. You can reach him at dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

Twitter: @PBDN_hofheinz