Steve Wynn’s New Line: Flipping Mansions in Palm Beach

The Palm Beach property market has been skyrocketing, and inspired at least one disgraced billionaire casino mogul to cash in.

According to the Palm Beach Daily News, Steve Wynn just made $5.2 million selling a mansion just three months after he bought it.

A company controlled by Wynn, 78, acquired the luxury lakefront property in December for $18.4 million. It sold this week for $23.68 million.

Palm Beach Real-Estate Boom

The exclusive enclave that is home to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club has long been a haven for the super-rich, and never more so than now. The pandemic has triggered an exodus of America’s wealthiest from its COVID-plagued cities. And they’re all heading for Florida and “The Island,” drawn by the promise of sun, golf, and zero income taxes.

“Anyone with money is fleeing New York and coming here,” Guy Clark, an agent with Douglas Elliman Real Estate, told Bloomberg recently. “It’s a seller’s market like I’ve never experienced.”

The property Wynn just sold is a 7,273-square-foot Mediterranean-style home that sits on the Intracoastal Waterway, with 155 feet of water frontage and a private dock. Unusually, it has more bathrooms (five) than bedrooms (four). It also has a glass wine cellar, a fireplace, and an elevator. Outside there’s a covered balcony, a 40-foot pool with a sun shelf, and a spa.

Last month, he bought another lakeside house across town at North Lake Way for $49 million, which suggests flipping Palm Beach mansions is Wynn’s new thing. Here, after all, is man who made his billions flipping Las Vegas Strip resorts like the Mirage, Treasure Island, and the Bellagio.

Living Le Rȇve

Wynn relocated to Florida shortly after explosive allegations of sexual misconduct towards female staff forced him to sell his 11.8 percent stake in Wynn Resorts for $2.1 billion.

He also sold his mansion in Summerlin, and, more recently, listed his sprawling Beverly Hills estate for an extraordinary $110 million.

The man who reinvented Las Vegas has reinvented himself as an art dealer, and for the past year or more has run a gallery on the second floor of The Esplanade on Worth Avenue, Palm Beach’s famous upscale shopping district.

The longtime collector of fine art sells multimillion dollar artworks, including Picassos, Matisses, and Warhols through the gallery and via his website, sierrafineartllc.com.

His new career got off to a bad start when a Picasso (“Le Marin”) he hoped to auction at Christies was damaged after being hit by a rogue paint roller.

It was the second time Wynn has clobbered a Picasso. In 2006, he famously put his right elbow through the canvas of “Le Rȇve” while showing it off in his office, causing millions of dollars of damage.