An Australian Investor Is the Buyer of a $150 Million Private Island in Palm Beach
Be the first to know about the biggest and best luxury home sales and listings by signing up for our Mansion Deals email alert.
The mystery buyer who paid $150 million for a private island in Palm Beach, Fla., is Michael Dorrell, an Australian who made his fortune in infrastructure investment, according to people familiar with the situation.
Dorrell, a founder of the New York-based infrastructure investment firm Stonepeak Partners, purchased Tarpon Island, a roughly 2-acre estate accessible by bridge. With a newly renovated home spanning nearly 29,000 square feet, the property was most recently listed for $187.5 million.
Dorrell, formerly a senior managing director of Blackstone Group’s infrastructure arm, declined to comment on the purchase via a Stonepeak spokesperson.
The deal has been the talk of the local real-estate community for weeks, but the identity of the buyer has remained a closely guarded secret, with real-estate agents and developer Todd Michael Glaser citing ironclad nondisclosure agreements.
Glaser renovated and expanded the home after buying the island with partners for $85 million in 2021. They relisted it that year, asking $200 million for a fully renovated estate or $120 million for the unrenovated property. It was listed for as much as $218 million in 2022, according to Zillow.
The estate has 11 bedrooms, a cold plunge pool and a large loggia with an outdoor kitchen and fireplace. The main house features a “wellness wing” with a massage room, a hair and nail salon, a steam room and sauna, as well as a gym. Outside there is a lighted tennis court and tennis pavilion, two private docks and a 98-foot-long pool.
Suzanne Frisbie of the Corcoran Group and Chris Leavitt of Douglas Elliman had the listing. Margit Brandt of Premier Estate Properties represented the buyer. They declined to comment.
Dorrell’s other homes include a mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, which he purchased for $41 million last year from philanthropist Julia Koch, the widow of billionaire industrialist David Koch. In 2022, a limited liability company tied to Dorrell also paid $34 million for a house in Coral Gables, Fla.
Market insiders say the Tarpon Island deal speaks to the continued strength of the luxury real-estate market in Palm Beach, which has been posting big-ticket deals since the onslaught of the Covid pandemic.
In 2023, luxury car dealer Michael Cantanucci paid around $170 million for an oceanfront estate sold by Robert Stiller, founder of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Also last year, billionaire William Lauder paid $155 million for the late Rush Limbaugh’s longtime Palm Beach estate.
The market shows some signs of slowing, however. The number of luxury sales in Palm Beach dropped 10% in the first quarter from the same period of the prior year, according to real-estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel. The median price for a luxury home in Palm Beach was $13.9 million in the first quarter, down 18% year-over-year.
Write to Katherine Clarke at [email protected] and E.B. Solomont at [email protected]