Elon Musk’s Potential $100 Million Condo Purchase Would Be a Boon to West Palm Beach, Florida.
Elon Musk is now worth $400 billion, more than any person that has ever walked the earth.
And if the rumors are true, he may choose to spend 0.025% of that on a penthouse in West Palm Beach, just across the bridge from Palm Beach, where President-elect Donald Trump presides at Mar-a-Lago.
A $100 million condo sale would blow past the previous record for West Palm Beach, set by the same unit Musk is rumored to be looking at. But regardless of whether or not Musk goes ahead with it, even the possibility that he could points to a new reality in West Palm Beach, which is rapidly transforming into a high-end luxury condo market—and potentially, a worthy rival of the billionaire-populated island across the waterway.
The city’s condo record was set when beauty mogul Sydell Miller purchased the penthouse at the Bristol for $42.6 million in 2019, while it was still in development. At the time, the 25-story condo building was the only luxury high-rise being built in West Palm Beach, which had historically been overshadowed by its ultra-affluent neighbor.
But in the five years since the Bristol welcomed its first residents, a wave of development has begun to transform the West Palm Beach skyline, with a pipeline of close to 20 new high-rises and over 7,000 new units en route to the market, according to an analysis by The Real Deal earlier this year, with a mix of luxury rentals and condominiums.
“The Bristol basically created this condo momentum,” said Ned Grace, co-founder of NDT Development, the developer behind the mixed-use Nora district in the city’s downtown. “It’s obvious that that type of living is what people want.”
The new crop of condos include the newly completed La Clara, as well as Forte and South Flagler House, all within spitting distance of the bridge to Palm Beach. Forte currently has the most expensive listing in the city at $47.5 million, while South Flagler House is expected to feature a $72 million unit. Additionally, branded residences like the Ritz Carlton, Mr C. Residences and several other projects are currently under development further north on Flagler Avenue.
Source: MANSIONGLOBAL
