🧲 Millionaire Magnet

Happy Saturday Highest & Best! This week, we’re talking big sums of money. Here’s the rundown:

💰Palm Beach is growing millionaires

🏠 A $188 million home finds a taker

🌴Arkansas lender sends a half-billion to Florida condos

🦝The Cadbury Easter bunny is.. a Miami raccoon?

Happy Easter…and let’s get to it!

Are you better off now than you were 10 years ago?

Palm Beach and West Palm Beach are.

The number of millionaires in those areas grew 93% in the decade through 2023, according to an annual wealth report released by money advisory firm Henley & Partners. That’s the third-largest growth in millionaires in the U.S. behind Austin (#1) and Scottsdale (#2).

Here are the numbers:

💰 There are 10,200 millionaires living in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach— and 69 residents who have over $100 million.

💰 Nine billionaires live in the Palm Beaches too. That’s only one fewer than live in Greenwich and Darien, the tony Connecticut coastline towns where Wall Street money lives.

💰Miami has 15 billionaires who call it home. Among them are Ken Griffin, the CEO of the hedge fund Citadel, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, both of whom migrated within the last two years.

💰Miami’s mere millionaire growth rate was smaller: that population grew 78% in the decade through 2023 to over 35,000.

💰Yes, but: New York City and San Francisco, while losing population to Florida, still claim the largest number of hundred-millionaires and billionaires. NYC still retains 60 billionaires, while the Bay Area has 68.

⏪ Catch up on recent Highest & Best issues:

• Miami Tower Turmoil, March 22, 2024

• Condo Boom, Office Gloom?, March 15, 2024

• High on Supply, March 8, 2024

The priciest home listing in Palm Beach County — and the second priciest in Florida — just found a buyer.

The 21,000-square foot home, atop a 2.3 acre man-made island in Palm Beach, went into contract this week, according to Zillow and published reports.

If sold at close to its asking price of $188 million, the deal would set a record for Florida’s most expensive home sale (to date), according to Jonathan Miller, president of appraiser Miller Samuel Inc.

The home, at 10 Tarpon Isle, comes with features that a big-spender might find important:

A 98-foot pool, a lighted tennis court, two private docks and 1,300-feet of water frontage. Also: 11 bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, a wine room, waterside office, and a “wellness wing” with a massage room and a hair salon, according to the property listing by Corcoran Group and Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

The newly-constructed home was built on spec by developer Todd Michael Glaser, who bought the site in 2021 for $85 million, the Real Deal reported.

The listing price for the home had been as high as $218 million in 2022, according to Zillow.

So, hey, $188 million is…a bargain?

This Arkansas Bank Really Loves Florida Condos

Another week, another half billion dollars in loans from Little Rock’s Bank OZK to South Florida’s skyline. Here’s this week’s financings by the bank that loves Florida condos:

💵 One Park Tower, a planned condo high-rise at North Miami’s SoLe Mia master community, got a $172 million construction loan.

The 33-story tower, by developer Turnberry, will overlook a man-made crystal lagoon, and will include 299 condo units, with a starting price of $900,000, according to its website. Padel courts, pickleball courts and a “professional pet spa” are, of course, a given.

The condo tower is part of of a larger $4 billion city-like master project that includes rental buildings, a health care facility a 17,000-square foot dog park, and in 2025, a charter school.

💵 Baccarat Residences in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood, got a $328 million loan, the Commercial Observer reported. The 75-story development, by Miami’s Related Group, will include 355 condo units (including eight penthouses) facing the Miami River. More than 95% of the condos have already found buyers, the Observer said.

All this comes on top of Bank OZK’s Florida financing spree from the end of last year, which included:

💵 A $239 million construction loan to Vita at Grove Isle, an “ultra-luxe” condo development on a 20-acre private island in Miami’s Coconut Grove area.

💵 $220 million to Fort Lauderdale’s FAT Village office and apartment project.

💵A $259 million financing of a Ritz-Carlton branded condo tower in Pompano Beach.

(For more details on Bank OZK, see our previous coverage here)

This Year’s Cadbury Bunny: A Florida Raccoon

A Miami rescue raccoon named Louie was crowned as this year’s Cadbury Bunny, the Hershey Company announced this week.

His prize includes a starring role in a Cadbury commercial — and $7,000.

Louie is a two-year-old raccoon who was rescued by his owner Jaime in 2021 after he’d been declared unfit to live in the wild, Hershey said.

He is fit, however, to have an Instagram page, which has over 382,000 followers.

That’s it for today!

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