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Every real estate investor or property owner knows that location is everything when it comes to determining a property’s desirability and value. Palm Beach, Florida’s location and history as one of America’s most exclusive coastal enclaves gives its real estate a desirability factor that’s hard to match. That would explain why a two-acre vacant lot in Palm Beach just minutes from President’s Donald Trump‘s Mar-A-Lago resort is selling for $200 million.
Palm Beach’s status as one of America’s most exclusive zip codes dates back to the late 19th. The city was founded by investor and railroad baron Henry Flagler, who was responsible for laying the train tracks that connected Florida to the rest of the United States. He made his original fortune as a co-founder of Standard Oil.
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Flagler had a major role in developing Palm Beach real estate. He built Palm Beach’s first luxury hotel, the 1,100-room Royal Poinciana, in 1894. It immediately became a vacation destination for wealthy northeastern industrialists looking for a respite from the winter. Flagler also built his Whitehall estate in Palm Beach. This 60,000-square-foot palace cemented the area’s exclusive reputation.
Many of America’s wealthiest business people would snap up Palm Beach real estate in the years after Flagler put it on the map. One of them was Marjorie Post, a scion of the CW Post food empire. Post would build her own magnificent Palm Beach castle on 17 acres of prime Palm Beach real estate. She christened it Mar-a-Lago. After she died in 1974, Post left Mar-a-Lago to the National Park Service, which sold it to Trump in 1985.
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Since then, almost all of Palm Beach’s prime plots have been bought and developed into hotels or palatial estates. This only served to push property values up even further, and now one of the few remaining vacant lots in the city is available. An acre is 43,560 square feet, meaning that these adjacent, one-acre plots are selling for an incredible $2,295.68 per square foot.
The plots are unique for other reasons. Palm Beach’s unique geography means it has coastal frontage on both the Atlantic Ocean and the Lake Worth Lagoon. Real estate agent Shelly Newman of the Corcoran Group told the New York Post that the property was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” because “In Palm Beach proper, there are only approximately 20 properties that expand from ocean to intracoastal, and this property is one of those few exclusive parcels.”
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If that wasn’t enough to justify the price tag, consider that two adjacent Palm Beach parcels formerly owned by William Lauder of the Estee Lauder (NYSE:EL) cosmetic family recently fetched a nine-figure sale price that The Wall Street Journal estimates approached $200 million. In keeping with Palm Beach’s theme of exclusivity and luxury, super-agent Ryan Serhant confirmed to The Journal that he represented the buyer in that transaction.
The property is also a blank canvas, allowing the new owner to build without the expense of a tear-down. The buyer also has the option to build on one lot while developing the other or utilize both plots to construct their Palm Beach dream home. They get all these benefits and the bragging rights that come with living just a few minutes down the road from the president. Location really is everything in real estate.
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This article Ultra-Prime Real Estate: One Of Palm Beach’s Last Undeveloped Plots Hits Market For $200 Million–Just Five Minutes From Mar-A-Lago originally appeared on Benzinga.com