Buyer Puts $160M Palm Beach Estate Under Contract to Bulldoze It

A Palm Beach oceanfront estate that once belonged to Murray and Joanie Goodman is under contract near $160 million, and the buyers do not want the mansion. They want the dirt under it. Luxury spec builder Todd Michael Glaser is one of two buyers lined up to demolish the existing house and replace it with two new homes, according to Hoodline and the South Florida Business Journal.

The estate had been marketed at $185 million before the price settled near $160 million under contract. The deal has not closed, no deed has recorded and no building permits have been filed. But the plan, as reported, is unambiguous: tear down a mansion on one of the priciest strips of oceanfront in the country and start over, twice.

Why it matters

Palm Beach’s teardown math has flipped. Land and view, not an existing trophy house, now set the price on the island’s best oceanfront blocks, and a $160 million purchase that ends in a bulldozer is the clearest sign yet. Splitting one estate into two new spec builds also signals builders see more value in fresh product sized for today’s ultra-wealthy buyer than in restoring or flipping an existing mansion, however storied its prior ownership.

The numbers

• $160 million: approximate contract price, down from the original ask
• $185 million: the estate’s original asking price
• 2: new spec homes planned on the site once the current mansion is razed
• $200 million: the per-home target the builder is said to be aiming for on the finished product, per the South Florida Business Journal

What’s next

The sale has not closed, so there is no recorded deed, no new Palm Beach County Property Appraiser owner of record and no demolition or building permit yet. Those filings would be the next confirmable step once the deal funds, and this desk will track the Palm Beach County Clerk and property appraiser records for the transfer. For now, the estate’s exact address has not been made public in any outlet’s coverage. See the South Florida hub for more Palm Beach luxury transactions.