By Darrell Hofheinz - Daily News Real Estate Writer

The longtime lakefront home of the late real estate investor and philanthropist Robert Bob Gordon and his wife, Arlette, has changed hands for $7.8 million, according to the price recorded Wednesday on the warranty deed filed with the Palm Beach County Clerks office.

Palm Beachers Abe and Giovana Haruvi bought the five-bedroom house at 980 N. Lake Way, which was last marketed at $11.9 million, said Scott M. Gordon of Fite Shavell & Associates. Gordon listed the house for his parents and is the only one of the couples three sons to have lived there while growing up.

Although the Haruvis are just finishing work on an 11,000-square-foot, seven-bedroom custom home at 112 Via Palma, the deal for the North Lake Way house was just too good to pass up, said Abe Haruvi, a real estate investor who owns a number of properties in Palm Beach County and New York City.

We always wanted to be on the water, Haruvi said. This was an opportunity I couldnt resist. Were very excited about the house.

With a little more than 12,000 square feet of living space inside and out, the home on North Lake Way had at one point in early 2010 been listed for nearly $17 million but never sold. Bob Gordon had taken it off the market for much of last season, his son said.

He loved that house and didnt really want to sell it, Scott Gordon said, explaining that by setting such a high price and refusing to negotiate, his father could sell it but not sell it.

After his father died in May, Scott Gordon put the house back on the market with an asking price of $13.9 million.

Abe Haruvi said he and his wife plan to renovate the house and live there. The couple meanwhile recently listed the other house on Via Palma for sale at $7.95 million with agents Paulette and Dana Koch of the Corcoran Group. The Haruvis also own another Palm Beach home at 129 Woodbridge Road, as well as one in Wellington.

With 155 feet of lakefront, the North Lake Way house was designed by Ames Bennett and built in 1962 by the late developer Robert Gottfried in his signature Palm Beach Regency style on a lot that stands five streets north of the Palm Beach Country Club.

The Gordons bought the house in the early 1970s when Bob Gordon expanded his development interests into South Florida from Boston, according to a 2010 article about the house in the Shiny Sheet.

My wife and I went down to Key West, stopping along the way, looking for a place to live. And then we arrived in Palm Beach, Bob Gordon said in the article.

When the real estate agent opened the front door and the couple looked straight through the house to the lakefront, Bob Gordon was sold: I remember that like it was yesterday. I said, Thats where the boat is going to go.

After the Gordons moved in, they added a dock, which was replaced in 2009. Over the years, the Gordons carried out a variety of renovation projects, including an addition on the north side of the house. The layout includes a grand foyer, a great room, a conservatory-style sun room, a billiards room, a sauna and a staff suite. Outside are fountains, gardens, patios, a loggia and a slat house.

Arlette Gordon, meanwhile, has bought a condominium in the Palm Beach Biltmore. She was represented in the transaction by her son, who said the deal would close this week.

Bob Gordon developed a variety of apartment buildings between Boca Raton and Miami. Most recently, he joined his son, Lee Gordon, in developing three spec homes since sold by son Scott on the island with George L. Ford III of Leeds Custom Design in West Palm Beach.

By CHRISTINE DAVIS - Special to the Daily News
 

Douglas Carton is facing a choice: Either he will sell his 1950s Palm Beach
 Regency-style house at 256 Mockingbird Trail, or else he will rebuild it. He bought his North End house about 10 years ago and has already gutted it once, but now he needs a little more room, he says.

“I love the Palm Beach lifestyle, the community and the weather. I love the street, but, since I moved into this house, I’ve had more grandchildren, and I need something just a bit bigger.”

To that end, his three-
bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath house with 4,292 square feet of living space, inside and out, is offered for sale through Sotheby’s International Realty for $2.4 million.

For his first remodel, he tore down interior walls, rearranged rooms, enlarged bathrooms and opened up the kitchen to the family room.

“I wanted something very contemporary and open,” he explains. “It was really perfect for me. I love the privacy in the backyard. It’s conveniently
 located.”

Another plus? The street, which lies about midway between the Palm Beach Country Club and the northern tip of the island, has its own beachside cabana jointly owned by the homeowners.

“It has 200 feet on the oceanfront, two rooms for storage and there are chairs and chaise lounges ready to use,” Carton notes.

A designer from Baltimore, since retired, helped Carton re-envision the interiors, and the results are tastefully done. A driveway circles behind high hedges and leads to the front door. The foyer opens directly into the living room, where ceilings are 10 feet high and French doors offer views of the pool and open to the covered loggia.

A bank of windows on the opposite side of the living room enhances the light-and-airy feeling. The minimalistic style of the room’s fireplace and the stone flooring add to the contemporary feel.

West of the foyer is the kitchen, which has white Shaker-style cabinetry and a center island with room for pull-up seating and a Dacor range, which is set in the butcher-block top. Other countertops are fashioned from Corian, set off with a subway-style-tile backsplash. The refrigerator and dishwasher are integrated into the cabinetry.

Off of the kitchen is a laundry area, which offers access to the two-car
 garage.

The master suite stands just south of the foyer and kitchen and has floors of hardwood oak. The suite also has multiple closets and glass windows that look out through the
loggia.

French doors with privacy glass lead into the master bathroom, where there are a whirlpool-style tub, a walk-in shower and double vanities. Another set of French doors opens to the loggia and pool.

The beach cabana is a real bonus, says Carton, and he and his extended family have enjoyed it as well as the house. “I have had many fond memories here,” he says. “My grandchildren love visiting, and it’s been a great house for entertaining, where my guests can sit at the dining room table and the bar at the island in the kitchen. I’ve also put a dining room table on the loggia for additional seating.

“I like the fact that the house has lots of glass. The sun comes through and makes it very nice.

By Elizabeth Clarke - Special to the Palm Beach Post

Palm Beach – Beach Point certainly doesn’t look like it’s gone to the dogs, and a recent visit turned up not a single sign of animals.

But, in fact, one of the great appeals of this 32-year-old complex of three buildings with Ocean-to-Intracoastal views is its pet policy. Every resident is allowed two pets with no weight limits.

“It’s very pet-friendly,” says Scott Gordon of Scott Gordon Realty. “That’s kind of a rarity along the ocean there. It’s huge opportunity for people with dogs.”

This large oceanfront property also appeals to buyers on many other levels, agents say. Whether it’s the wide beach, the stunning Ocean and Intracoastal views, the constant breeze, the well-kept grounds or the spacious and luxurious apartments, it’s hard not to find something to like here.

“People just love the ocean views,” says resident Rhoda Kleid, also an agent with Fite Shavell. “But at night, they love the Intracoastal because there’s a lot going on.”

With about 12 acres and just 105 apartments, residents enjoy elbow-room both inside and outside their units, plus a resort-like feel.

Three buildings, each with seven floors, provide every apartment with a water view: the Atlantic Ocean, the Intracoastal Waterway or the pool, if not two or all three.

Units range from two bedrooms, two baths and 1,900 square feet up to three bedrooms and three baths with 2,875 square feet of living space. That doesn’t include the roomy terraces and wraparound balconies.

“The floor plans are great features,” Gordon says.

In addition to a pool and hot tub, amenities include two gyms, three tennis court a party room with kitchen and bathrooms, a sun deck at the beach, full-time office manager and condo manager on site, plus 24-hour door service in each building and underground garage parking.

Thirty-nine residents also own poolside cabanas, small hotel-like rooms just steps from the large pool where they can entertain or just step out of the sun.

Maintenance fees, based on square footage, range from $4,075 per quarter for the smallest unit with no cabana. That includes insurance, cable TV, common area maintenance, pest control and water and sewer.

Beach Point’s oceanfront is nearly 700 feet wide, and the west, the property crosses AIA to include a thin piece of land alongside the Intracoastal, where development is prohibited.

Today’s list prices range from $575,000 to $1.85 million, depending on the size of the apartment, and its location and view, and its condition.

But agents say sales in Beach Point are always good, regardless of the economy. This year, six units have sold already, after just three last year. That, however, was the lowest since 2003.

Public schools for any kids in the building would be A-rated Palm Beach Public and B-rated Lake Worth Middle and Forest Hill High Schools. Children are allowed but few, if any, live there all year long.

Most residents live in their units just six months a year, but managers estimate that about 15-20 percent are year-around residents.

For Kleid and her husband, Beach Point was a perfect fit 14 years ago. And things haven’t changed, she says.

“We really liked the complex, the grounds” she says, “and we liked the people.”

It’s a nice combination – whether you’ve got a dog or not.
 

By CHRISTINE DAVIS - Special to the Daily News

Libby Dubick of Manhattan finds herself in a spot familiar to many grown children whose parents made lives in Palm Beach but have left behind the homes they enjoyed during their retirement years.

Dubick’s mother, the late Sylvia Dubick Spitzer, was particularly fond of her apartment in the Parc Regent at 184 Bradley Place, which she considered a perfect place to host family and friends.

“She and my stepdad, (the late) George Spitzer, started out as snowbirds, but then they moved to Florida permanently,” Dubick recalls. “My mother had lived in Cleveland, and George was a New Yorker. They met in Florida, sold their apartments when they married and bought this apartment 23 years ago.”

George Spitzer died in 1999, and his wife passed away last year. So the Spitzer condominium, with three bedrooms and four bathrooms, has been listed for sale through Scott Gordon Realty with a price of $3.75 million. The apartment includes a cabana by the swimming pool.

Dubick herself enjoys pleasant memories of her visits to the expansive apartment, which has 3,500 square feet of living space, inside and out, and 9-foot ceilings throughout.

“My daughter, Elizabeth Mitchell, and I often came for holidays and spring breaks,” she says. “My daughter was close to my mom, and she would come summers, and I’d spend August in Florida. We’d love sitting on the balcony at cocktail time watching the sunset.”

The location next to the Palm Beach Biltmore was perfect, she said, because the building was close to the bike trail, restaurants and downtown West Palm Beach. With dramatic water views and its own dock, the building is intimate, with just 15 apartments.

The building’s elevator opens directly into No. 302’s private entry, which leads to a foyer appointed with hardwood floors set in a herringbone pattern and crowned by a decorative tray ceiling.

To the south is the living room, which also has hardwood floors. Architectural features here include crown molding and plantation shutters that cover the windows. Sliding-glass doors on the west side of the room open to the balcony and offer views of the Intracoastal Waterway.

Also off the living room is a bedroom with a bathroom appointed, like the others in the condo, in marble. The space was used as a den with a bar area and has built-in cabinetry, plantation shutters and glass doors that open to the covered balcony.

The dining room is on the east side of the living room through a wide opening set off by columns. It has a tray ceiling and plantation shutters that cover the doorway leading to the south balcony.

The dining room connects to the breakfast area and the kitchen with custom cabinetry and tile floors.

The master suite in the northwest corner of the apartment is accessed through the foyer. The floors are carpeted, and a woven wallpaper covers the walls. Other features include built-in cabinetry for media and storage, and glass doors to the west that open to a private covered balcony. The suite includes closets, and a dressing area with a vanity sink and two bathrooms, one with a soaking tub and both with walk-in showers.

In the southeast part of the condo, which can be accessed either through a hallway from the kitchen or directly from the elevator hallway, is a carpeted guest suite with a bedroom and bathroom.

“My mother loved this apartment. It was spacious and the large bedroom suite in the back was great. When her children and grandchildren visited, her space would not be disturbed and she would not be subjected to our mess,” recalls her daughter with a smile.

“I wanted her to buy next to me in New York, but she loved the warm weather. Since the building is small, it felt like home to her, and she had many friends in Florida.”

For information about No. 302 at 184 Bradley Place, call Scott Gordon at (561) 346-4141.