Burt Handelsman, Really worth Avenue and Hibiscus Avenue in Palm Beach front (Getty, CZmarlin — Christopher Ziemnowicz/CC BY-SA 4./by way of Wikimedia Commons)
Palm Seaside true estate mogul Burt Handelsman, the self-explained “Mayor of Really worth Avenue,” has died. He was 95 many years previous.
Handelsman, whose last decades had been colored by a quite community, bitter divorce from his spouse of 67 several years, was a longtime resident and prominent landlord in Palm Beach, the Palm Seaside Each day News reported, citing his loss of life on Jan. 5. From their kitchen area desk in Brooklyn, the couple created a $550 million authentic estate empire that a Palm Beach County choose divvied up in a nonagenarian legal fight.
In accordance to the outlet, the mogul was born in Brooklyn and served in the Navy in the course of Entire world War II. He went to school at New York University, then labored for his father as an accountant.
Handelsman married Lucille “Lovey” Handelsman in 1948, and the few began investing in genuine estate in the 1950s. They acquired assets on Palm Beach’s ritzy Well worth Avenue around various decades, earning them landlords to the likes of Ralph Lauren, Jimmy Choo, Gucci, and the island’s possess Lilly Pulitzer. As 1 of Really worth Avenue’s most major landlords, Burt Handelsman referred to himself as the “mayor” of the famed shopping street.
Lovey Handelsman filed for divorce in 2016, citing Burt’s affair with one of his longtime attorneys. The split was finalized in 2019, and the house portfolio was divided as very well. At the time, Burt Handelsman was 91, Lovey Handelsman was 90. The judge ruled on a overall of 18 properties well worth an believed $210 million, as perfectly as the division of the Handelsmans’ inventory holdings, income, and artwork selection. The relaxation of their assets had been parsed out to Lovey and the pair’s adult small children through negotiations.
Burt Handelsman also unsuccessfully sued his small children, alleging they solid his signature on firm checks to pay themselves, at one place calling them his “enemies.”
In the finalized divorce, he received the loved ones dwelling in White Plains, N.Y., as very well as a golfing system in the Catskills. Lovey Handelsman received the the greater part of the Value Avenue property holdings. Just a thirty day period just after the divorce was finalized, she died in her slumber in her Well worth Avenue condominium.
In 2021, Burt Handelsman marketed many of his remaining Really worth Avenue qualities for $58 million to Aspen, Colo.-primarily based investor Mark Hunt.
— Kate Hinsche
