3/27/24, 1:32 PM The Unexpected Record Setters in South Florida Luxury

Auto dealers are unexpected fuel for South

Florida luxury
Trophy buyers beat out hedge funders, tech bosses and media moguls for records

Alan Jay Wildstein and Jill Green with the Porsche Design Tower (Alan Jay Automotive Network, Jill Green CC, Google Maps, Getty)

An April residential sale made Palm Beach history and placed a

JUN 2, 2023, 9:45 AM
perhaps unexpected character at the top of the wealthy enclave’s
trophy market.
By Kate Hinsche
When an oceanfront estate sold for $170 million, it marked the most
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anyone has ever paid to call the island home. The trade took the
SHARE THIS ARTICLE crown from cosmetics heir and longtime Palm Beacher William
Lauder, who nabbed it from private equity titan Scott Shleifer.
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A A A But the buyer didn’t have Hollywood, Wall Street or Silicon Valley to
thank for reaching record-holder status.

Luxury car dealer Michael Cantanucci was the deep-pocketed buyer

who paid Green Mountain Coffee Roasters founder Bob Stiller and

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3/27/24, 1:32 PM The Unexpected Record Setters in South Florida Luxury

his wife, Christine, almost six times what they bought the 1.6-acre
property for in 2014.

Cantanucci owns New Country Motor Car Group, which calls itself
one of the largest independent car dealerships in the country. It has
sites in New York, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
It sells Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lexus, Maserati, Porsche, Mini and cars
from other makers.

Cantanucci is just one top buyer who rode the particularly lucrative
road of car dealerships to real estate riches. The automotive bosses
bring in big bucks, not from owning the lots or selling the cars, but
from financing and add-ons that fuel expansion for their dealership
empires.

And they spend in a style of their own. Alan Jay Wildstein bought his
second Porsche Design Tower condo in July, dropping $14.4 million
at the Sunny Isles Beach building. The head of Alan Jay Automotive
Network has spent a total of $20.4 million on units in the tower and
is in contract to buy a condo in the planned Bentley Residences.

“He was a major pain in the ass,” said Nelson Gonzalez, an agent
with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty who
represented the seller in the deal. “I don’t mean that in a bad way.
He was crazy, crazy meticulous.”

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Wildstein was an apt representative of a stereotype the broker said

was common to the industry centered on well-oiled machines.

“Car guys are different than regular people,” Gonzales said. “They
are very, very detail-oriented.”

For some, the focus on details has translated to top-dollar deals: Car
dealers have claimed their fair share of trophy properties in recent
years.

Terry Taylor, the country’s largest car dealership owner, bought the
9,900-square-foot condo in the Tiffany & Co building on Palm
Beach’s Worth Avenue for $18 million. He also made headlines in
2019 for buying fellow Palm Beacher Tommy Hilfiger’s Plaza Hotel
penthouse for $31.5 million.

Jill Green, who leads her family’s portfolio of car dealerships in the
Midwest, sold her waterfront North Palm Beach mansion for $10.9
million in November, shortly after completing an 11,000-square-
foot waterfront mansion in Palm Beach Gardens.

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3/27/24, 1:32 PM The Unexpected Record Setters in South Florida Luxury

The subset of luxury buyers appears to break from the cliches that
rule the top of U.S. trophy markets.

On the West Coast, media moguls and newly minted tech

billionaires dot the headlines on pricey trades from Malibu to Napa.
On the East Coast, whether Palm Beach, the Hamptons, or New York
City’s most notable towers, it’s titans of finance, banking and
business –– hedge funders, private equity investors and venture
capitalists — spending the fortunes they made, often abroad.

The Larry Ellisons, Oprahs and Ken Griffins of the world dominate
the narrative of luxury real estate. But there are endless ways to
build gargantuan fortunes, most of them not thought to be as sexy
as Wall Street, Hollywood or Silicon Valley.

Take Adam Weitsman, who bought a Jade Signature condo in

Sunny Isles Beach for $23.5 million in March last year. He made his
money recycling scrap metal. Giovanni LiDestri just sold his South
Beach Portofino condo for $8.8 million. He made his millions in
sauce –– yes, sauce –– after starting out as a protégé at Ragu.

At the end of the day, moguls by any maker fall in line with their
fellow ultra-luxury buyers, brokers said. It doesn’t matter how you
made your money — just that you made it and you’re looking to
buy.

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