Introducing the new King of Florida.
New York financier Scott Shleifer, co-founder of Tiger Global Management’s private equity unit, has been revealed as the mysterious buyer who earned $ 122.7 million (cash) to buy a spec house in front of from the sea to Palm Beach, which was owned by Donald Trump. It is the highest paid property for a Palm Beach estate or, in this case, a home throughout the state of Florida.
“He flew during the day, looked at the house for about 15 minutes, made the deal with cash and then returned to New York,” a source familiar with the deal told The Post.
“He’s just a boy in the family who is very good at math,” the source added.
The $ 40 billion Shleifer company, which manages $ 40 billion, had a stellar year in 2020, and it’s not alone.
New Jersey-based financier David Tepper reportedly just paid $ 70 million for a Palm Beach pandemic mansion.
“These guys are all the same,” the source said. “For them, it’s just a cover against the market. They fly to Miami or Palm Beach and go to a place like Cipriani, which they know from New York. They get a table in the back or just to take away because of the COVID. These guys are super aware of COVID. They don’t want to be with people and they don’t have to be in New York anymore. No one should be here. You just know. That’s what’s so crazy. They can do whatever they want. ”
Shleifer’s new excavations include a nine-bedroom mansion and a guest house, totaling 21,000 square feet. The main house is ready for entertainment, with large rooms, a bar, games room, wine cellar and beauty salon. The outdoor area has a swimming pool and outdoor cinema. Built last year, the 2-acre estate was on the market for just a month and demanded $ 140 million.
But despite the staggering price, the property, located at 535 North County Road, cannot shake its controversial history.
The land was part of a 6.2-acre estate that housed the Casa de l’Amitie or House of Friendship. Ironically, the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and the former president, then a businessman, fought for the estate when it was sold at a bankruptcy auction in 2005. Trump outperformed Epstein, paying $ 41.3 million for the property.
Earlier, in the late 1980s, the property was owned by Epstein’s benefactor, the billionaire retailer Les Wexner, who gave Epstein his Manhattan mansion that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell used to prepare and abuse underage girls. and housing dormitories for alleged child sexual abusers. like Prince Andrew.
Wexner paid $ 10 million for the Palm Beach estate in 1985.
In 2008, Trump unloaded the property on Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, who owned it when he bought Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” for $ 450 million – for $ 95 million. The deal gave Trump a $ 54 million profit and became a topic of Robert Mueller’s research on Russia.
Rybolovlev razed the house and sold three adjacent lots for the combined price of $ 108.2 million, reportedly less than the cost of loading the property combined with the costs associated with the demolition of the mansion.
Rybolovlev’s spokesman once told this journalist that it was a smart deal because he would make money selling the subdivisions, but apparently Rybolovlev never earned a penny.
In the most recent record deal, reality TV star and runner Ryan Serhant worked with Douglas Elliman’s Christopher Leavitt to represent the buyer. Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates ended the seller.