Worth Ave. Tiffany’s site sells for $20M
One of Palm Beach’s most recognizable buildings on Worth Avenue — home to Tiffany & Co. — changed hands for $20 million earlier this month.
The price paid for 259 Worth Ave. in Palm Beach works out to about $1,221 per square foot.
Kean Development and Hyde Retail Partners bought the building in a “joint venture with funds managed by an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group,” according to a statement released by Kean Development Co., which is headquartered in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., and has an office in Palm Beach. Hyde Retail Partners is headed by retail real estate specialist and CEO Paisley Boney IV, who has ties to Jacksonville and Ponte Vedra Beach.
“We are absolutely delighted to retain such a world-class address and classic building,” Palm Beach resident John C. Kean, president and CEO of Kean Development Co., said in the statement.
The deed recorded Oct. 2 identifies the buyer as a Delaware limited liability company, FRO II 259 Worth Owner LLC, with an address in care of Fortress’ New York office.
The buyer plans to develop “five-star” office space on the second floor of the building, Kean said. The second floor has been occupied for years by Tiffany & Co.
The building was sold by Madden Family Associates Ltd., an entity controlled by a family that has owned the property for several decades, property records show.
The two-story building has 16,374 square feet and stands in the middle of the Avenue at the corner of Hibiscus Avenue, across the street from Chanel.
A building has stood on the corner since at least the 1930s and many years ago housed Cartier jewelers. It was also a longtime home of the Frances Brewster boutique. In the early 1990s, the facade got acladding of coral Key stone as part of a renovation project designed by Smith Architectural Group.
The building has been marketed for sale since late 2016 by Tampa-based Franklin Street. At that time, The Palm Beach Post reported that the brokerage expected the building might fetch as much as $40 million.
“The original listing price seemed incredibly unrealistic,” said West Palm Beach commercial broker Neil Merin,chairman of NAI Merrin Hunter Codman Inc., who was not involved with the sale. “If (the sellers) were intent on selling it, they got the right price.”
Tiffany & Co. has signed a longterm lease at the building, according to a Franklin Street spokesman.
Fortress Investment Group is a publicly traded “global investment manager” with about $41.4 billion of assets under management as of June 30, according to the company’s website. The firm was founded in 1998 and manages assets for more than 1,750 institutional clients and private investors, the website says. The company deals in credit, real estate, private equity and other capital investments.
Greg Matus, Franklin Street’s senior vice president of investment sales, handled both sides of the Worth Avenue deal.
“Very few proper ties ever change hands on Worth Avenue. This was a rare opportunity for the investor to acquire a premier asset on one of the most famous retail streets in the world,” Matus said in the statement released by Franklin Street. “The sellers benefited from strong market demand and a scarcity of high-end urban street retail in South Florida.”
The building will be managed by Franklin Street’s Lisa Jesmer.
In 2011, James M. Madden and Daniel S. Madden, acting as co-trustees of the Madden Family Trust, transferred ownership of the building to the entity that just sold it. Daniel Madden is vice president of Madden Family Associates Ltd. and has had ties to a house in the historic El Cid neighborhood of West Palm Beach.