The Dirt

DIG INTO THE DIRT FOR WEEKLY NEWS ON THE SIZZLING REAL ESTATE MARKET.

Thu Jul 24 2025

Kimberly Miller | Senior reporter

@kmillerweather

FOR 1A CP: Palm Beaching Sunday - 062124 Wpb Development 05

Phillips Point, center is part of the city skyline on June 21, 2024, West Palm Beach, Florida.

GREG LOVETT/THE PALM BEACH POST

Welcome to The Dirt! I’m real estate, weather and critter reporter Kimberly Miller with the latest developments in the sizzling market.

The Warehouse District in West Palm Beach opened in those salad days of 2018 when Gen Xers were hoping to relive their grungy Nirvana Pearl Jammy days by slumming it in revamped industrial areas with high-end cafeteria-style food vendors and kids running around like it was Chuck E. Cheese for jet-setters. Don't get me wrong, industrial areas are good remodels and we are all looking forward to Nora, but that's different because I said so.

Anyway, the Warehouse District is getting a refresh with new design and furniture stores opening to cater to the influx of wealth to the area. The food court is out, for now. One notable subtraction and addition is the loss of the axe-throwing bar Game of Axes, which is being replaced by Bindu Yoga & Wellness.

Several things to unpack here. There was an axe-throwing bar? A bar, where there were axes and alcohol? At the same time? Okaaayyyy. If you were a fan, don't be discouraged, there are still locations in Boca, Boynton and Jupiter. And does it mean that West Palm Beach is a more Zen city because the axes are being replaced by yoga mats and Lululemon-clad soccer moms driving Range Rovers. Probably not. It's West Palm Beach. Welcome to the jungle, baby.

In other real estate-related news, a historic home that was shuttled around West Palm Beach on a cart like a sad obsolete overhead projector has a new home and new homebuyers, cities are likely holding budget hearings this month and everyone's taxable property values have increased, and Palm Beachers are doing what Palm Beachers do, likely tearing down a lakeside estate that they just bought for $86.5 million.

Riddle House gets new owners enchanted by historic architecture and story

Historic Riddle house in West Palm Beach has been remodeled and is up for sale.

Shawn Hood, West Palm Beach

This isn't the famously haunted Riddle House that was retired to Yesteryear Village, but it's still a Riddle House in that it once housed West Palm Beach's first city manager Karl Riddle. It has been moved twice since it was first built during the 1920s land boom, but its current location is likely its last having just sold for $1.3 million.

Douglas Elliman Realtors Jessica Julian and Michael Melear co-listed the property, which was originally put on the market in January 2024 for $2.52 million. But it has a teency drawback in that it's next to the Florida East Coast Railway tracks. Back in the day before quiet zones, that was probably a deal killer, but now trains coast through as quietly as snow on a December morning or a doe drinking from a stream or an electric scooter flying up behind you on the sidewalk.

Lakefront Palm Beach home likely to be demolished after record sale price

Pbn Hires Aerial 203 S Lake Trail Dwright Aframe

Investments manager Gerald "Jerry" Jordan and his wife, Darlene, just listed their lakefront estate on 1.7 acres at 203 S. Lake Trail in Palm Beach for $84.9 million.

Dakoda Wright for Andy Frame Photography

A 1930s-era home in Palm Beach that was designed and later renovated by society architect John L. Volk sold for $86.5 million, which is a record high price for a lakefront home with no ocean frontage. And there should be no surprise as to the new owner's likely intent on what to do with the estate, which is to tear it down.

Because the new owner is a secret trust whose real identity is protected by a swarm of killer bees and legalese (I didn't even mean to rhyme that), we don't know and can't ask why someone would want to tear down a Volk home. But, and this is another shocking development, the Palm Beach Architectural Commission signed off on the design of a new mansion and guesthouse for the property. ARCOM is notoriously cranky about new construction, so this one must be a beaut.

Palm Beach County taxable property values up nearly 8%

Rendering of the proposed government campus redevelopment in downtown Boca Raton, Fla. The joint venture plan is being led by the Miami-based Terra Group and the Frisbie Group of Palm Beach.

Provided by City of Boca Raton

It's raining money in Palm Beach County with taxable property values up nearly 8% year over year, but that's actually the lowest increase since the pandemic sent home sales into orbit. In 2022, values were nearly 15% YOY, followed by 13.5% and 9.65%. And here's a fun fact: In 2006, taxable values were 23% higher YOY. But no one wants to repeat the Freddy Kruegeresque real estate bloodbath of the housing bust that followed that. And it's unlikely to happen. I don't know a single waiter/waitress who has recently gotten three jumbo-loan mortgages — a common occurrence in the bad ol' days.

Boca Raton beat out runner-up Palm Beach for the highest taxable value at $40.1 billion compared to $34.3 billion. In third place was West Palm Beach at $25.4 billion. But what's a few billions between friends? Is it hump day yet? Seriously.

Live lightly.

Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate, weather, and the environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.