S
usan S. Kirkbride, a longtime Palm Beach resident, has sold her Barton Avenue home to a real estate and estate-planning attorney who served as trustee of a trust. The off-market transaction for 138 Barton Ave. in Midtown was valued at $10.5 million. Stuart J. Haft, the trustee, declined to comment on the deal, including whether it was an "arm's length" sale between unrelated parties. Kirkbride also chose not to discuss the matter.
The deed was recorded December 10 and lists the buyer as the Barton Avenue Trust with a mailing address in care of Alley Maass' post-office box in Palm Beach. Due to privacy rules governing trusts, no further information about the buyer's side of the transaction is publicly available.
Built in 1964, the one-story house has four bedrooms and 5,040 square feet of living space. Several seasoned real estate agents said they would have expected the property to sell for at least a few million dollars more, citing its prime location in Midtown, ocean-block site, and large lot size.
Kirkbride and her late husband, Walter T. Kirkbride, purchased the house in 1996 for $1.3 million. He passed away in August at age 77 after serving as president of Conseco Capital Management, now known as CNO Financial Group. The Kirkbrides had homesteaded the property as their primary residence on the latest tax rolls.
