Trump's Mar-a-Lago security zone is racking up home sales. How much was the latest deal?
The house at 142 Via Palma was last asking $18.95 million, down from its original price of $24 million in late 2023.
- The house at 142 Via Palma in Palm Beach was sold for $16.99 million, according to the multiple service. It was owned by entrepreneur David E. Weisman and his attorney wife, Jacqueline E. Michel.
- The four-bedroom house has 7,633 square feet of living space, inside and out. The house stands on two-fifths of an acre and is the fifth lot west of the beach.
- When Trump is at Mar-a-Lago, security officers close down seven blocks of South Ocean Boulevard in the neighborhood.
- The security zone disrupts traffic, while police checkpoints can inconvenience residents and visitors. But the zone adds an far higher level of security for those who live in the neighborhood.
The number of residential properties changing hands since mid-December in the Mar-a-Lago security zone has climbed to seven — a spurt of sales that might attract attention in any Palm Beach neighborhood but is even more notable in the one President Donald Trump calls home.
In the most recent sale in the neighborhood, a renovated house at 142 Via Palma sold for $16.99 million, the price reported in the multiple listing service. The four-bedroom house was built in the 1950s in the Estate Section neighborhood that closes to through traffic when the nation’s chief executive is in residence at his private club four blocks away. The house had been priced at $18.95 million when it sold.
Wireless-infrastructure entrepreneur David E. Weisman and his attorney wife, Jacqueline E. Michel, were on the sellers' side, property records indicate. The couple had bought the property for $5.4 million in 2016, owned it as tenants in common and had declared the house to be their primary residence in the latest Palm Beach County tax rolls.
The MLS did not identify the buyer in the sale that closed June 2. It's also unclear if the price reported in the MLS will match the one expected to be recorded at the Palm Beach County Courthouse.
The house has 7,633 square feet of living space, inside and out. The house stands on two-fifths of an acre and is the fifth lot west of the beach.
Agent Margit Brandt of Premier Estate Properties held the listing. She declined to comment about the sale.
Agent Darlene Streit of the Corcoran Group represented the buyer's interests, the MLS shows.
Weisman has been involved in the wireless-communications industry as an investor, executive and attorney for more than 40 years, according to a brief online biographical sketch. He co-founded and is co-managing member of Infra Holdings LLC. He previously had co-founded and served as CEO of the InSite Wireless Group LLC until its sale to American Tower in December 2020.
Michel’s charitable resume includes serving as president of the advisory board of the American Friends of Musée de Montmartre, vice president of the board of directors of Darbster Rescue, an animal-rescue organization in West Palm Beach.
The house on Via Palma entered the market at $24 million in December 2023 but saw a price reduction to $19.95 million in March 2024, the multiple listing service shows. After a hiatus from the MLS, the property was relisted for sale in January at $18.95 million.
High ceilings and generously sized formal living spaces
Brandt’s listing described the house as an “elegant residence” and “an entertainer's paradise located just steps to Mar-a-Lago.” With deeded beach access, the house is on the south side of Via Palma, a street “recently upgraded with a lovely view of the Intracoastal and an easement for residents' use," the sales listing said. Via Palma is the fourth street north of Mar-a-Lago.
The house has high ceilings throughout and generously sized formal living spaces — including a living room with a fireplace — that flow directly to a terrace overlooking the 50-foot heated lap pool. Nievera Williams Design created the landscape plan.
The interior floor plan also includes two bedrooms, each of which could serve as a primary suite. One of the other bedrooms is configured as a separate guest apartment with its own entrance and patio.
Multiple impact-resistant windows and French doors bring natural light into the house, according to the sale listing, which also mentions a full-house generator and a three-car garage.
How the Mar-a-Lago security zone works
When Trump is at Mar-a-Lago, security officers shut down South Ocean Boulevard in the neighborhood, opening the road only to property owners or their authorized representatives or workers. The security zone runs north from the club property for seven blocks, or about half a mile, to South County Road.
Because the area is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Intracoastal Waterway on the other, the roadblock effectively divides the town in two, forcing through-traffic to detour across bridges into West Palm Beach and back.
The implementation of the security zone disrupts traffic, while police checkpoints can inconvenience residents of the neighborhood as well as visitors and those who live other parts of Palm Beach. But in a town that touts the safety it offers its wealthy residents, the presidential zone adds an even stronger layer of security for those who live within it.
Other sales, listings in the Trump security zone by Mar-a-Lago
Since mid-December, six other residential properties in the Mar-a-Lago security zone have sold at prices ranging from $12 million to $27.5 million.
∎ The first of those sales involved a never-lived-in, five-bedroom house developed on speculation on two-fifths of an acre at 130 Algoma Road, which changed hands for a recorded $14.3 million in December. The seller in that deal was real estate investor and developer Lee Fensterstock, who built the midblock house with 7,312 square feet of living space, inside and out. The Algoma Road estate was listed by Corcoran Group agents Dana Koch and Paulette Koch and sold to a Wyoming limited liability, MAQ Holdings LLC, which was represented in the deal by agent Elizabeth "Missy" Savage of Brown Harris Stevens.
∎ In mid-January in the same neighborhood, private equity specialist Andrew "Andy" Unanue, whose family owns the Goya Foods empire, was linked to seller's side of a $27.5 million deal involving a renovated eight-bedroom estate with 12,773 total square feet at 120 Clarendon Ave. The buyers on Clarendon Avenue were Lawrence Rolnick and Kimberly Sorrentino, a married couple who own another house in the Mar-a-Lago security zone through a limited liability company. On a lot of about three-quarters of an acre, the Clarendon Avenue house was listed by Paulette Koch and Dana Koch, with Brandt acting for the buyers.
∎ In early February, a vacant lot of two-fifths of an acre at 1090 S. Ocean Blvd. sold for a recorded $19.5 millon with town-approved house plans at the corner of Woodbridge Road, the street immediately north of The Mar-a-Lago Club. A Florida limited liability company sold that lot to an entity controlled by investments manager Bruce J. Richards and his wife, Avis, of New York City. Brandt handled both sides of the sale of 1090 S. Ocean Blvd., which was marketed with a perk available to owners on Woodbridge Road — gratis guest privileges at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump's famous landmarked mansion-turned-club presides over 17.5 ocean-to-lake acres.
∎ Via a deed recorded Feb. 26, an updated 1950s-era house at 168 Kings Road changed hands for a recorded $12 million, sold by a Delaware-registered limited liability company named after the property’s address. The buyers in that deal were oil businessman Kendall Cheatham and his wife, wealth-manager and private-equity specialist Ashley Ciaburri Cheatham. The five-bedroom house at 168 Kings Road has 5,377 total square feet on a dry lot of about two-fifths of an acre. On the seller’s side were Compass Florida agents Brooke Murphy and Kyle Blackmon, with the buyer’s side represented by Douglas Elliman agents Cara Conigilo McClure and Lisa Wilkinson.
∎ In late March, a house at 153 Kings Road sold for a recorded $14 million. The sellers were Palm Beach businesswoman and retailer Lori Bernstein and her husband, Michael Bernstein, CEO of MEB Finance Solutions Inc. and the managing director at Seaport Specialty Lending LLC. Kathleen Ryan and her businessman husband, David L. Ryan, bought the five-bedroom house with 6,789 square feet of living space, inside and out. Douglas Elliman Real Estate agents Chris Leavitt and Ashley McIntosh represented the sellers on Kings Road, negotiating opposite Brandt.
∎ In April, a six-bedroom house at 129 Woodbridge Road sold for a recorded $14 million to Beverly LLC, a Florida limited liability company for which Abraham Weissbrod serves as a “member,” state business records. The house on Woodbrige Road was sold by a family trust in the name of the late George Buff III, heir to the Penny Plate disposable aluminum container fortune. The residence has 4,810 square feet of living space, inside and out. McIntosh and her Elliman colleague Kendall Corso held the listing, negotiating opposite agent Julian Rizzuto Flancbaum of Coldwell Banker Realty.
The Palm Beach Board of Realtors MLS shows three other “active” listings in the Mar-a-Lago security zone. On May 20, Brandt listed, for $12.5 million, a house at 112 Algoma Road in both the single-family homes and land categories of the MLS.
Elsewhere in the neighborhood, an estate at 160 Clarendon Ave. is offered at $48.85 million by broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates, while a house at 1048 S. Ocean Blvd. is listed at $23.95 million by agent Elizabeth DeWoody of Compass Florida.
Portions of this story appeared previously in the Palm Beach Daily News.
Darrell Hofheinz is a Paste BN Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.