West Palm Beach estate sells to The Related Group Miami for millions
A decorous West Palm Beach estate known as both tropical oasis and drug-laden flophouse sold for a weighty $16 million this month to a prolific Miami developer nicknamed the condo king.
The Related Group of Miami bought the Mediterranean-style waterfront home at 4906 N. Flagler Drive from Wolfgang Von Falkenburg, who is infamous for a deathbed wedding to an oil heiress, and having two fatal drug overdoses at his home dubbed The Flagler House.
Von Falkenburg, 80, said he sold the estate he owned since 2013 because he got a nice offer and had “too many friends living there.”
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“I decided to clean it up, and I have other homes,” said Von Falkenburg, who added he doesn’t know what the plans are for his former property. “I asked them several times, but they didn’t tell me anything.”
Von Falkenburg was a long-time Palm Beacher with multiple properties on the island. He has since sold them, including the home he once leased to Ethel Kennedy, widow of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy
North Flagler a hive of activity
North Flagler Drive is teeming with planned development as downtown West Palm Beach land becomes scarce and anything waterfront is coveted.
In June, a vacant lot on the Intracoastal waterway sold for an astounding $10 million. The Frisbie Group paid $24 million for an old apartment building at 5400 N. Flagler. The 22-story Alba condominium at 4714 N. Flagler is scheduled to open in 2025.
The New York-based Savanna Fund wants to build two tall towers at 1919 N. Flagler Dr.
And in the past two years, The Related Group of Miami paid $13.9 million for land in the 1700 block of North Flagler Drive with aspirations of building a Ritz-Carlton residences. It also is building a twin-tower project called Marina Village at 4444 N. Flagler in partnership with Rybovich.
A spokesperson for Related Group said the company wasn’t ready to comment on the purchase of the home at 4906 N. Flagler Drive. It bought the property under a limited liability corporation with the same name as the address.
With 1.19 acres and zoned for multifamily, high-density housing, it’s possible the land could carry more than its current three structures. The main house has 7,200 square feet with 100 feet on the Lake Worth Lagoon and a 70-foot dock. There are also two guest cottages.
Old Florida club from the 1940s could be in the way
Whether there is room to grow remains to be seen. The lot is directly north of the private Flotilla Club, which owns 2.4 acres. It is south of four privately owned lots that combined total about 1 acre.
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“The bottom line is you’ve run out of land, especially waterfront property,” said Corcoran Group Realtor Greg Bevilacqua, who also lives on North Flagler Drive. “The Flotilla Club has to be in play.”
But the Flotilla Club, a taciturn nonprofit with no current social media account or contact information, has been a mainstay on North Flagler Drive since the mid-1940s. It has a building from 1925 on it, a scattering of boats, a sand parking lot and a makeshift outside bar where families have gathered for generations.
A Palm Beach Post article from Oct. 28, 1947, said the club was organized following World War II by members of the Coast Guard Temporary Reserve who served from the spot on what was then called North Poinsettia Avenue.
Bevilacqua said he has mixed emotions about the development on North Flagler Drive. The Alba is being built on land next to his 50-year-old condominium.
“Every time I hear a loud noise, I think they must be breaking ground,” he said. “As much as I’d love to be selling a $2.5 million condominium, that’s two years of construction and I worry my building is going to get trashed.”
The Related Group is also betting on the west side of downtown West Palm Beach. It took control last year of Transit Village, a $1.3 billion transportation-based, mixed-use development on Clearwater Drive and South Tamarind Avenue.
“We hope to build products for everybody and be the dominant player in the market for a very long time,” Related Group President Jon Paul Perez, told The Palm Beach Post this year.
Douglas Elliman Realtor Gary Pohrer, who represented Von Falkenburg on the sale of 4906 N. Flagler, declined comment.
Strange tale of Wolfie and the addicts
In 2018, Von Falkenburg was the subject of a Palm Beach Post story titled “The strange tale of Wolfie and the addicts.”
It chronicled his life and exploits, including a lawsuit that accused him of hijacking the estate of Standard Oil heiress Anne Terry Pierce McBride. Von Falkenburg married McBride, known as Annabelle, for the second time while she was in the Hospice of Palm Beach County dying after a fight with breast cancer.
Von Falkenburg, who grew up in post-World War II Germany, was also known for attracting hangers-on and drug addicts. Steven N. Churchill died in 2015 at the North Flagler Drive house of an accidental heroin overdose. He was found slumped across the back seat of a dust-covered Jaguar parked in the garage.
Ten months later, Joshua Gray Hodgson died at the house from an overdose of fentanyl and cocaine.
“I lived in Florida 40 years and that was way too long,” Von Falkenburg said Thursday about the $16 million sale of the North Flagler house. He said he is now traveling the country.
