Longtime Palm Beach commercial landlord Burton Handelsman sold several of his retail and office properties on and off ritzy Worth Avenue for $58 million.
Records show Aspen, Colorado-based real estate investor Mark Hunt bought the buildings at 219 and 225 Worth Avenue, 220 Peruvian Avenue and 375 South County Road from affiliates of Handelsman. The real estate spans 1.3 acres.
Hunt, who two years ago embarked on a redevelopment plan of downtown Aspen, bought the properties in three deals, using different affiliates. Hunt focused on Aspen in 2009 after moving from Chicago, and bought $100 million worth of properties in the Colorado resort city since the mid-2010s, according to the Aspen Sojourner.
In Palm Beach, Hunt purchased the 1,050-square-foot retail building at 220 Peruvian, built in 1956; and the 12,904-square-foot 219 Worth Avenue building, built in1929, for $23.8 million, according to a deed. Records show Handelsman’s Love LLC had purchased these and two other parcels in 1998 for $15.6 million. Sequin jewelry occupies the Worth Avenue property.
Hunt also bought the 9,932-square-foot property at 225 Worth Avenue, built in 1950, for $18 million. Handelsman’s Love Next Door LLC had paid $28.1 million for the building in 2013, records show. J.McLaughlin clothing store occupies the property.
In the third deal, Hunt bought the 16,692-square-foot office property at 375 South County Road, built in 1984, for $16.2 million. Handelsman acquired the property in 1987 from Sunrise Savings and Loan Association’s receiver Federal Savings and Loan Association, for $100. It previously traded in 1983 for $2.4 million, a deed shows.
Handlesman, 93, went through a well-publicized, bitter divorce battle that ended in 2019 with a judge deciding Handelsman was to split his $550 million real estate portfolio with his wife of 68 years, Lucille Handelsman, and their children. The holdings included high-end retail along Worth Avenue, including Ralph Lauren, Jimmy Choo, Lily Pulitzer and Findlay Galleries.
This is at least the third commercial real estate deal in Palm Beach since March. Mayor Gail Coniglio sold a mixed-use building at 283 Royal Poinciana Way for $7.15 million; and Paramount Church sold the historic Paramount Theatre building, which opened in 1927 as a silent movie theater, for $14 million.