The co-founders of Palm Beach’s newest private dining club sold their home on the island to New Jersey car dealer Rodman Ryan for $28.7 million.
Records show Michael D. Bickford and his wife, Paula Valente Bickford, sold the house at 135 Gulfstream Road to Walter Rodman Ryan and his wife, Dianne Ryan.
Walter Rodman Ryan, who goes by Rodman Ryan, is CEO of Open Road Auto Group, which operates 18 dealerships across New Jersey and New York. Open Road’s brands include BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz. The Ryans listed a mailing address in Far Hills, New Jersey, on the deed for their new Palm Beach home.
Michael Bickford is CEO of Round Hill Capital, a real estate investment firm based in London that invests primarily in European properties. He is also a competitive polo player with the La Indiana polo team and competes in Wellington, according to published reports.
He and his wife co-founded the Carriage House, the newest private dining club on the island. In a recent New York Times article about Palm Beach’s private dining scene, designer and real estate investor Tommy Hilfiger said of the Carriage House, “It’s modern Palm Beach… It checks all the boxes.”
It costs about $250,000 to join, the outlet reported.
Records show the couple bought the Gulfstream Road home for $6.4 million in 2015, when they moved from London to Palm Beach. Built in 1930 on 0.4-acres, the 5,900-square-foot house has five bedrooms, seven and a half bathrooms, a pool and summer kitchen, according to a previous listing. The home was renovated in 2001, according to the same listing.
With this purchase, Ryan becomes the latest car dealer to snap up luxury real estate in South Florida. Car dealer Michael Cantanucci recently set a record in Palm Beach, buying an oceanfront estate for $170 million in April.
South Florida’s real estate market has come down from its pandemic frenzy, but buyers in Palm Beach are still paying top dollar for their homes. This month, Hilfiger flipped a house for $41.4 million, five months after buying it for $36.9 million. Oil scions sold their late parents’ home for $17.1 million earlier this month. In May, spec developer Todd Glaser and his partners sold a waterfront estate for $63.4 million, a little more than a year after buying it for $53 million.