Dealmaker: Cushman & Wakefield Facilitates $40M Palm House Hotel Sale

Cushman & Wakefield, New York, facilitated sale of The Palm House Hotel on Palm Beach Island, Fla., via a Section 363 bankruptcy sale.

Robert Given, Errol Blumer, Robert Kaplan and Michael Mulkern from Cushman’s south Florida multifamily team represented 160 Royal Palm LLC in the disposition. 160 Royal Palm LLC is a court-appointed receiver managed by former Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein.

Marci Langley, a shareholder in Greenberg Traurig’s Boca Raton, Fla. law office, also represented 160 Royal Palm LLC in the May 15 sale.

London and Regional Properties, London, England, acquired the 79-unit asset for $39.6 million, or $501,266 per unit. Glickstein said the sale will allow nearly 80 investors and creditors including the Town of Palm Beach to receive a “substantial portion” of the money they are owed.

The Real Deal Miami reported Palm House Hotel developer Robert Matthews pleaded guilty in April to defrauding foreign EB-5 investors about the project. A federal judge approved the sale in March.

The Palm House Hotel occupies 1.3 acres less than one block from the Atlantic Ocean in one of south Florida’s wealthiest zip codes with a $1.25 million average adjusted gross household income. Residential sales nearby regularly exceed $1,000 per square foot. The 82,648-square-foot project dates to 1961 and was expanded in 1981. Significant renovations were started at the property in 2006, but all work stopped in 2014. The property is currently vacant and Glickstein noted it languished for more than 10 years without a single hotel guest.