Real Estate
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Forget Palm Beach — Florida sun-seekers are heading to this burgeoning nearby enclave
Wall Street South e♌xecs are moving north — but only a few miles.
And they’re not alone, as many house hunters on this end of Florida look to the under-the-radar Palm Beach Gardens — just 12 miles north of Palm Beach, which offers more space and less of a hustle.
As The Post reported in 2023, Wall Street entities like Goldman Sachs have set up shop in new shiny towers in West Palm Be🍬ach, and luxury shopping and dining areas are now carved into the coastal Florida city.
But the bustling corporate occupation of West Palm Beach and the billionaire boom in neighboring Palm Beach is making some there seek sanctuary, and lower prices, in this lesser-mentioned neighbor, Palm Beach Gardens — swapping the Palm Beaches’ swinging social scene for the country club lifestyle.
“We put in a tremendous amount of due diligence into finding this place,” Will Weathersby t🔯old The Post of his new home in Palm Beach Gardens, purchased last June for $4.35 million.
He and his wife Denise had eyed a mov🐻e from Florida’s Gulf Coast, and began looking around the Palm Beach area before settling on a newly renovated four-bedroom in the Old Marsh Golf Club.
“We looked around, but ruled out Palm Beach entirely. It’s more crowded; it’s beautiful, but it was♒n’t what we were looking for.”
Too touristy?
“Yes,” he said.
“Here we have the upside of🔯༺ a small community, but with everything you need nearby.”
“It’s fun zipping into Palm Beach whenev🏅er we want to,” added Denise.
Most people know Palm Beach Gardens as America’s 🌜golfing capital.
In fact, the Professional Golfers’ Association of America is headquartered there and PGA Boulevard, the main drag, is Palm Beach Gardens’ dining and shopping hub, with around 100 restaurants and more than 2 million square feet of stores.
It’s a sport꧑y town in general, though, and famous for being home to Olympian tennis ico♊ns Venus and Serena Williams.
It’s outdoorsy, even for non-Olympians.
“What’s wonderful about Palm Beach Gardens is that we have desi﷽gnated 50% greꦅen space into our city ordinance,” Palm Beach Gardens Mayor Chelsea Reed told The Post.
“We have 10 miles of public access hiking space, and we’re bringing bac🃏k native Floridian plants and trees there. We’re planting milkweed, and building butterfly and pollinator habitat. Our residents love that they have butterflies and hummingbirds back in their backyards.”
“Right now, we are looking over♏ our backyard onto 🐲a wetlands preserve,” added Will Weathersby.
“What’s nice is that Palm Beach Gardens is already built out,” said Janet Lano, who recently returned to the city after buying a condo at Old Palm Golf Club.
Lano originally moved to a four-bedroom house in Old Palm in 2016, and then sold 🍰it in 2022.
She left to live in Jupiter and is now heading back to Old Palm Golf Club sin✱ce she loved ༒the area so much.
She plans to move int🐼o her new residence in♚ April.
“Other 🅰areas you can buy a mansion and then next door they’re tearing something down. There’s always construction.”
It’s ꦉnot like livi𓂃ng in Palm Beach Gardens is living under a rock, more of a nook.
Two highways provide easy access to West Palm and Palm 𒁏Beach — it’s a 20-minute commute — and, as with every city everywhere, construction is happening in Palm Beach Gardens.
Developm✅ent here kicked off in the 1960s after insurance magnate John D. MacArthur bought a vast tract of land devastated by cattle ranches.
MacArthur dubbed his investment Palm Beach Gardens and qu🐎ickly incorporated the land as a city in 1959 with a population of 1.
“We’re looking at smart ﷽development, like redevelopment of empty strip malls,” said the mayor.
“We are addressℱing workforce housing, which is essential for the community to fu🍒nction.”
Functionality and not wasting time in traffic is a big plus, 🔥said the Weath💙ersbys.
“The ease and a⛄bility to get around is tremendous,” said Will Weathersby.🌠
“Whoever did the city planning gets an A+.”
The main reason Palm Beach Gardens fell under the radar bꦫefore is its location, tucked inland about 9🅰 miles from the coast.
Alluring beachside properties ribboned with white sand and sweeping ocean views, to use ಞmarketing 🀅parlance, are what Palm Beach offers — at a high price.
Palm Beach Gardens doesn’t.
But the city does have the Intra🐟coastal Waterw🐻ay and a newly booming Marina District.
In January, the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Palm Beach Gardens poured its fiꦆrst concrete for three seven-story buildings that will add 106 spacious three-, four- and five-bedroom residences to the city.
P⛎ricing starts at $4 million and doubles for the larger, hiไgh-floor condos.
This is the first non-coun🐲try club luxury market community 🧔in Palm Beach Gardens, clearly expanding its social palette to high-spending boaters.
The Ritz-Carlton’s 29-slip private marina, which can acﷺcommodate yachts up to 75-feet long, 🅺was completed first in 2023.
“We will be attracting boaters,” said Joey Eichner🎀, senior vice president of Catalfumo Compan𓂃ies, the property’s developer.
“But our buyers are people with second or third homes. They collect country club memberships like they do homes as well. This feeds into the community and we have already built relationships with some of the clubs.”
Another new development, Panther National, is centered on golfing, but also designed ༺to upset the go💖lf-centric condo community model nationwide.
This luxury all single-family home private club development (prices from $4.5 million to $20 million), which boasts an 18-hole championship course designed in partnership with golf c🍸hampion Jack Nicklaus and current PGA Tour star Justin Thomas, comes from former pro skier and sports agent Dominik Senn, who saw a hole in the local mark🐭et.
It’s the first golf community to be built in Palm Beach Country in more than 20 years, and edges towards a luxury wellness resort in its style, and includes an expansive Lifestyle Club with fitness rooms and two swimming pools — all in addition, of course, to that golf course.
“There’s a new generation of younꦉg golfers who want a more rel🐻axed place, which is why we do not call it a luxury lifestyle gated community. All the young executives working in West Palm will appreciate what we have,” added Senn, Panther National’s president and founder, who’s living at Old Palm until his own home at Panther National is completed.
Is Palm Beach Garden in danger of getting Palm Beached,💟 swallowed up by the fast set pushing uꦚp prices?
According to a recent Douglas Elliman Palm Beach Gardens numbers shared with The Post, the third-quarter of 2023 saw the single♔-family median sales price rise to thꦅe third-highest level on record to $957,500; condo prices increased to all-time highs, with median prices reaching $445,000.
Palm Beach Ga🌞rdens is, however, fitting the national trend in the slight cooling of♑ the red-hot market.
By the end of 2023,🍎 at the top end of the market, the average price for a luxury single-family resid🎃ence fell from $4.19 million to $3.42 million.
But luxury condo prices continued to rise, and average third quarte🉐r sales saw a leap from $1.17 million to $1.48 million in the fall-into-winter market.
“Prices are plateauing after the COVID boom,” local Compass real✃ estate agent Dory Faxon told The Post.
“Prices aren’t going 𓆏down, because there is no inventory. A lot of people are staying put. There might be a little room for buyers to negotiate, but not much🅷.”
Compared to the Palm Beach average single-family luxury home pri𝔍ce of $20 million in 2ಌ023, Palm Beach Gardens is still very attractive for buyers.
“On the value side of the♕ equation, you still get quite a bit more for your dollar here, especially if you ar✱e not directly on the water,“ added Faxon.
While the allure o꧑f a Palm Beach beachfront property isn’t going away anytime soon, for some home seekers, it’s not a selling point.
“Some people want the glitz and glam of living in Palm Beach ,” said Will Weathersby, “💞but for us this is a⭕ very sweet spot.”
