Palm Beach penthouse sold for $15.7 million, more than double the price in 2013

The renovated oceanfront condo is located on the top floor of Kirkland House, a premier boutique building in Midtown Palm Beach.

An oceanfront penthouse that changed hands in 2013 for a record $5.8 million has sold for more than twice that amount at the Kirkland House apartment building in Midtown Palm Beach.

The just-closed $15.7 million sale is the largest-ever condo transaction at Kirkland House and the third-largest oceanfront condo sale in Palm Beach.

The deed shows the buyer is longtime Palm Beach resident and investment professional Nicholas Adams.

Roderic M. Oneglia, a retired Connecticut construction executive and attorney, was among three trustees who sold Penthouse A at 101 Worth Ave. through a trust in his name for a record $15.7 million. The price was documented on September 30 by an off-market sale deed.

The renovated three-bedroom apartment is located on the sixth floor of a building on the corner of Peruvian Avenue.

The apartment in the northeast corner of Kirkland House has 4,630 square feet of living space, including 800 square feet of balconies, according to a previous listing.

Because the condo runs along the north side of the building, it offers ocean views to the east and northeast, as well as views to the west and northwest, including downtown West Palm Beach.

The apartment is among just four on the top floor and is accessed by an elevator that serves one other apartment on the penthouse level. The Kirkland house was built in 1974 and has 22 apartments.

Records show Oneglia sold the apartment through the Roderic M. Oneglia Spray Trust. Oneglia acted as co-trustee of the trust with his brother, Gregory S. Oneglia, and attorney Robert F. Cohn, who has an office in New Haven, Connecticut.

The address in the Oneglia trust’s deed of incorporation is in Torrington, Connecticut, and corresponds to the headquarters address of O&G Industries., a family-owned construction company co-founded in 1923 by Andrew Oneglia. Gregory Oneglia is a principal there, while Rod Oneglia’s professional resume shows he was associated with Burlington Construction Co., also in Torrington. Rod Oneglia could not be reached for comment.

Sotheby’s International real estate agent Bobby Goodnough confirmed that he and Sotheby’s colleague Raj Shrestha acted on behalf of the buyer in the just-completed transaction. Goodnough declined to comment further on the deal.

Nicholas Adams, who goes by the pseudonym “Nick,” is a Boston-based global investment manager affiliated with Wellington Management. He did not immediately respond to a telephone message left at his office.

Agent Anne Carmichael of Brown Harris Stevens represented the sellers’ side and, like Goodnough, declined to comment on the details of the transaction or the parties involved.

She said Kirkland House is an excellent building – and not just because of its oceanfront location on Worth Avenue in the heart of Palm Beach. The building is well-maintained and managed, she said, and provides its residents with a first-class lifestyle.

Carmichael handled both parties when the apartment changed hands in 2013, according to records on the multiple listing site. In this arrangement, the seller was the trust of the late Margaret Young, who shared the apartment with her late husband Adam Young, founder of Young Broadcasting and president of Adam Young Inc.

“It was a pleasure to represent this property,” Carmichael said of the recent sale, adding that the condo is “unique and has extraordinary views.”

Adams has been a Palm Beach resident for at least 20 years. In 2004, through a trust fund, he purchased one of the most famous apartment buildings in Palm Beach. Built in the mid-1920s, the apartment on Via Mizner near Worth Avenue was originally the home of architect Addison Mizner, who designed it. Adams and his wife Dee painstakingly restored the multi-story apartment. The couple has another Palm Beach residence, a landmark Mizner-designed home at 456 Worth Ave., across from the Lake Worth Lagoon.

Adams is listed on the deed to the Kirkland House and his mailing address is in the care of the Rabideau Klein law firm in Palm Beach.

The previous price record for Kirkland House was set in June 2022 when Unit 3A sold for a record $15 million. In this sale, agent Ann Summers of Brown Harris Stevens acted on behalf of the seller, health information technology entrepreneur Y. Michele Kang; Summers led negotiations with Allison Wren of the Corcoran Group, who represented the buyers, Bennie M. and Stephanie Chantillis Bray. The Brays, who served as trustees of the Bray Family Revocable Trust, took a loss on Property 3A in March this year, selling it for $11.94 million after purchasing a townhouse on the other side of town.

Kirkland House came to the limelight in 2023 when many residents fiercely opposed plans for the project, which would renovate and redevelop portions of the office and retail building immediately west of 125 Worth Ave. Rod Oneglia was one of them Kirkland House residents who sent letters to the city expressing opposition to the project and spoke at the City Council meeting.

Real estate investment firm Frisbie Group, which owned the office building with an investment partner at the time, ultimately withdrew plans for the controversial project. Frisbie Group and its partner, Dreyfuss Investments, ultimately sold the building for $83 million in July 2023 to Citadel billionaire Ken Griffin, who owns the building next door as well as the largest residential development in Palm Beach.

Palm Beach’s most expensive oceanfront condo changed hands for a record $23.75 million in December 2022, when New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft used the ownership company to purchase a beachfront penthouse No. E4B with a beach cabana in the east Leverett House building at 110 Sunset Ave. Co-sellers in this sale were the estate of the late Mark Daniel Wolf and his late mother, Joyce “Joy” Wolf. Corcoran Group agents Dana Koch and Paulette Koch were the listing agents, and broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate represented Kraft’s interests in the sale.

In addition to the two oceanfront condos that sold for more than the one at Kirkland House, several others in Palm Beach changed hands at higher prices, but they are not oceanfront, according to property records.

This story has been updated to add new information.

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Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who covers Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips on real estate news on the island. Email [email protected], call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Help support our journalism. Sign up today.