Hey guys, I’m Ray Paresi with CNBC and we’re down in Florida today here to check out an 18,000qt mega home known as Palazzo Inside, 7 bedrooms, 10 baths, and a total of 34 rooms, plus a 170,000galon mega pool, waterfall and grotto in the backyard. Three more things that’ll make this tour super interesting.

One, this house has more than doubled in price in just 5 years, and we’ll explain why. Two, you’re about to meet the broker who’s poised to do over $100 million in transactions by selling this one house four times. And three, we’re going to reveal a mega renovation with some of the most dramatic before and afters you’ve ever seen.

[Applause] [Music] This is super broker Sonata Azim who is the listing agent of Palazzo Great to see you, Ray. to see you, too. I love that you have the yellow blazer on and you’re actually matching your brake calipers today. Well done. Well done. Let’s get inside here and check out Palato How’s your Italian pronunciation? How do you dil? Very well done.

It’s good, right? Wow. This is incredible. [Applause] [Music] This is the first time I’m seeing this dramatic renovation, but it’s not the first time I’ve ever been here. Here’s video of when I shot this house for CNBC over 5 years ago, back when Sonata first listed it. After this shoot in 2020, she sold it for $17 million.

Since then, she listed and sold it twice more. So, this is the fourth time she’s put this same house up for sale. Today’s asking price, $45 million. That price tag represents a 164% increase in just five years. This is a totally new house. It is completely different, right? It was completely reinvented, reimagined, and it has this completely new, very dramatic style.

So, we were here shooting over 5 years ago. I remember originally it had almost what looked like a white prom dress chandelier in the front and it was very minimal. That’s correct. And it certainly is not like that anymore. This staircase remains the same, but it’s completely reframed by vegetation wall. Yes.

So, you have now organic feel to that and you’ve got a lot of high gloss gyana wood which gives that reflectivity and adds like this vertical feel to the space. So, you see that you’re really in a foyer that’s 30 ft in height. And this used to be uh drywall also. It was just white. This was just with some sort of glass accents that were hanging down here.

And now it is stone beautiful marble that you can see that has this completely book matched and it’s framed underneath with the Guana wood. So you’ve sold this house three times in in just 5 years. And for some people it’s like like why is the house trading that much? Is there something wrong with it? Absolutely not.

Uh this home is absolutely extraordinary. However, uh people’s circumstances change and they have different chapters in their life. So, we were privileged to be able to guide this home through different evolutions and different owners and be able to add value to it and a lot of value cuz now we’re talking about 100% appreciation.

We could talk a little bit later about why that is happening and and give people a sense of the context around the marketplace here. Um I am curious, the last people that lived here, um I heard that they actually moved to another house in the same neighborhood. They actually moved to Casamaranelo, which is Aldo Stark’s signature home.

And then he bought this home from them and did a whole different look and feel and brought it to what we see today. You can see some of the developers signature looks that are similar at the uh Ferrari House. If you just Google on YouTube Ferrari House CNBC, you’ll see there’s some relationship between the renovation here and and what that house looks like.

Yes, that style and look is very bold and I feel like this was like Lake Coma romance meets South Florida splendor and has like a dash of James Bond vibe. Interestingly, the vegetation wall is not real. It looks real. And I think that over time um it’s gotten better and better at making uh vegetation walls and things like that look super real.

And the beauty of it is it doesn’t require the maintenance that a vegetative wall would require. Maybe the housekeeping people need to just dust it every once in a while. But there’s no watering. There’s no leaks associated with it. It’s a very easy thing. It looks real, right? Yes, absolutely. For you.

Does it look real? Looks real from there, right? Shorter now. Yeah. I actually prefer being up here because she’s like 7 feet tall and I’m like 5t tall. So, this is like this is a good I’m going to take this step with me for the rest of the interview. Let’s take it. So, you know what I just noticed? It’s like a bunch of little staircases. Yes.

They have a really interesting relationship to the staircase. Yes, of course. She’s like Captain Obvious. It was intentional. Everything. I’m sure it was intentional. I just noticed it though. I’m glad. I’m glad. Another room that looks completely different. What is this wood called? So, this is Guana wood.

This is from Brazil. It’s um high gloss and has a lot of movement. So, um I feel like it adds again that verticality and adds a lot of uh reflectivity to this space. Yeah. So, you can actually see uh reflection of the pool and sunlight here. And what it used to be was more matte and not reflective. So, the room is effectively way brighter.

That’s correct. And all of the furniture inside is completely different. Everything is brand new when it comes to furniture. My favorite piece, Ray, is this giant golden agot custom coffee table. The developer here is also the interior designer and in some cases actually making the furniture. He is a developer who has everything under one roof or I call it under one mind, right? So he envisioned things that most people haven’t seen before and he actually creates the concept and then executes on everything. Um, and we have

video of this actually being built and the and the lighting going into it. $150,000 slab. It’s okay. It’s okay. Don’t worry about the chandelier. We just going to go through. Even if they move. If I don’t scream, it’s okay. [Music] And we’ll double back to the dining room now, which has been transformed pretty dramatically as well.

Here’s Sonata in the dining room before the renovation. And now here she is after. It’s a very moody, very sophisticated feel to the to the dining room. [Music] This is totally climate controlled, I presume. Yes. So the whole room is climate controlled. I really love this space because you have beautiful materials here.

Um, and we can hang out, have a cigar. [Music] So, they added this gorgeous AGOT, which is also backlit. All new beautiful chandeliers and lighting, and of course, all new bottles of wine. La. All right. So, now what’s the next stop? Next up is his office which is worthy of modernday James Bond. So that’s called the Greywave marble.

Um it’s very dramatic and it takes four big slabs to get it perfectly aligned. Yeah. Do you see this? Um it’s it’s it’s matched here, here, here, here, here. And that that takes a lot. And when you do this, you end up having a lot of marble that gets cut away so that you can make the perfect matching. He has a really good eye for turning stone into basically artwork in a room.

And the use of marble is so special in this home. He doesn’t like drywall. So, he likes to use natural materials to adorn the homes. Yeah, it is funny because you are not going to see, I don’t think, any sheetrock or drywall in this house. Everything is either upholstered in something or uh or sheathed in some beautiful stone.

So, I have a secret room to show you. would love a secret room. I know you do. Interesting. Let’s go in here. Ah, I assume this is like the cigar bar, tequila bar. I don’t know. You can mix it up. Is there a um a system in here that uh sucks away the smoke of whatever it is that you’re smoking? Yes, indeed.

So, there is special filtration system just in this room. So, you can make it a cigar room or you can just make it a hangout room. Where to next? Okay, let’s go to the heart of the home, which is the kitchen. As you can see, this reinvention was very dramatic. Wo! Right. I mean, we’ll we’ll take a quick look at the old version of this space.

This is insane. I know. Every single thing is different. It’s so much better. It really is. Before you had just like white countertops and now you have this orabico grigio marble from Italy and it’s perfectly coupled with this very organic walnut from Spain. Yes. And check out this. I mean the stove in the hood. This is like serious.

This is really for the family, right? So you can entertain here. This is such a beautiful space and it’s obviously designed for someone who likes to cook themselves. But if you want to have your chef on a daily basis, there’s a separate space. And thankfully, the chef’s kitchen has also gotten a dramatic renovation that we can show you.

I like that this is open to you call that what? The family room. Family room or Florida room. Does someone have to mow this? You don’t have to touch it. The fake vegetation has gotten really good. That’s not real either. It’s got like fake water in it. Well, you have to get really beautiful maintenance-free pieces that add organic texture to the space.

And this is a dramatic change. What do you call this area? So, this is a breakfast area. Breakfast with a wine glass and three dishes. You want your Cheerios? We’re serving Cheerios for breakfast. This whole space is new. Um, it preserved like the structure of the banquet, but it has a whole new elevation to it where you have the white oyster agot backlit as the feature wall, which is so fabulous to me and and so glamorous and sophisticated.

And this is another situation where the developer actually creates furniture. That’s correct. [Music] This is a space with a license to thrill. So, this might be the most dramatic transformation here because this room was also very white, very basic. It has some like bright red stools here and now it’s gotten the Aldo Stark reinvention.

What I personally love is this really special marble. This is called Kolkata Picasso. You know, it’s very rare to be able to backlight marble. Everything that you see here is included in the price of this home. And I feel like when you say staging, it kind of like demotes the value of the furniture. As you can see, everything is custom.

Everything is extremely high quality. Like I just love even like the billiard table has mother of mother of pearl inset details. So there’s some really cool pieces in here. So everything comes with it including the all the tequila at the bar. All the tequila is included. Uh we for 45 million you get all the tequila you can drink for for a little while.

So this is another big transformation. Even the theater got the stark touch. Yes. It got the cinematic feel, right? So you have the beautiful marble. You have wood detailing that has acoustic properties. Some of the stuff you can’t see is the audio and visual stuff. Was that upgraded as well? That was upgraded.

And there’s a brand new $150,000 projector. [Music] I love this office. I I like also the earth tones and the palette here. This is Makia Veio marble. I think it’s so nice. And I like when an office has a bottle of tequila and a bottle of champagne in it. That’s the kind of work I want to do. This is a very glamorous staircase. I think you should be wearing your tuxedo and I should wear like a ball gown.

I’m underdressed for that staircase. We’re walking across now mother of pearl inlaid tile. This is one of my favorite design pieces ever, and I was so grateful that they preserved it. Wo, does this look better than it used to. The bones of the house worked. There’s not a wall change or anything. The the surfaces of the walls have changed, but they haven’t been moved.

And and a room like this, it’s still the same chandelier, but everything as far as interior design and even the wall coverings have changed. And it’s just like a whole new place. The bones and the structure of the home are exquisite, but it definitely needed a big facelift and a refresh in a way that’s going to transform the whole home.

The one place that did not need a facelift is where we’re going next. And those are his and her closets. Her closet is untouched because they nailed it the first time. Exactly. Should we go check it out? Yes. This is Sonata’s happy place. I would say this is any girl’s happy place. La. This is the OG Chanel boutique inspired closet.

This is extraordinary. Even the dirty laundry thing is pretty glamorous. You got to love this Sonata. You know that’s my favorite piece. I think last time I told you I’m like I feel like you made it in life when you have a ladder in your closet. Do you know you got it made when you have a ladder in your own closet? We’re going to go see his closet which is a little anticlimactic after that but but solid for a closet.

Solid. Absolutely. So his closet Ray was inspired by Tom Ford. So he had his Tom Ford, she had her Chanel inspired. Wow. The only thing that changed was the marble and the back lighting because Stark did not want any sheetrock to be seen. So, we sheathed it in expensive marble. So, it is currently empty.

It looks even better when someone really organized and really rich stocks it up with some cool stuff. Can you do the honors of uh snapping your fingers and revealing his closet, which he also calls the Air Jordan room for obvious reasons. Who has that many sneakers? Big collectors. Every Trophy home needs a trophy garage. [Music] It is Ferrari heaven here.

Of course, you have to have a Rolls-Royce. Yeah, Ferrari heaven should have a Rolls-Royce here and there. This is some serious staging. What’s your favorite car here? I think my favorite is the 458 Spatial just because the calipers match my outfit. Obviously, yellow is my favorite color. So, here we go.

Both garages now have AC. And you can even detail the cars in the garage because if it’s a little too hot outside, you can close both garage doors and and detail. And you pointed at this because you’d be washing it and the water would flow out. That’s correct. So you have water connection here and this is drainage. That is literally thinking of everything.

You get to wash the car in the air conditioned environment. I doubt that the person who buys this place is washing their own car in here, but it’s nice to think that they of course maybe they are cuz they love the car so much. And they love the cars. Right across the way some more uh prancing horses. Indeed. It’s vintage like me. I love it.

So to keep your private collection super safe, you have a security office right here. Even though this is one of the safest communities in the country, we figured that most clients may want to have either property manager or security staff. Just, you know, you might need a gun safe off the cars, right? Of course. And you need a television.

You need a sheriff. I’m a big car aicionado, so this is really my space besides the Chanel closet. I can’t imagine that they would have had to change much here. It’s still got this sort of Bali Four Seasons vibe. Yes, it does. I think you’ll have to go to the nighttime shots, right, to see what really changed.

They added over 2,500 lights. Uh they did all brand new landscaping, new pool equipment, new pool lights, fire pits. It just has a great evening vibe. So, you’ve sold this house three times so far. I want to go over the history of the sales cuz this is crazy. She’s going to sell this house for the fourth time in transactions worth over a hundred million if she gets anywhere near today’s asking price.

So, can we rewind to the first sale which was back when uh the three of us were here touring this house in 2020? It was a very different looking house. The asking price then was $20 million and it traded for 17 million which was uh $950 per square foot. So 17 million around 5 years ago. Then you sell it again after. So actually after co our market definitely accelerated and I sold it for 26 million in 2023.

So we’re going from a little over 900 in price per square foot to a little over,400. Just over $1,450 per square foot. That’s a 53% rise in value in just three years. Then you sell it a third time. Yes. That was a really unusual transaction. Now, this one I need to explain because it’s not as straightforward.

The former owners of this place bought a new house up the street being sold by developer Aldo Stark. They paid 50.5 million for his Ferrari inspired mansion and everything inside. The deal for Kasam Marinelo was a combination of cash and real estate broken down like this. 24.5 million in cash plus they handed over the title to their home which was valued in a deal at $26 million.

Immediately after taking ownership, the developer started a massive renovation. And within a few short months, Stark and Sonata listed 9200 Rocky Brook again with a whole new look, a new name, and Palazzo had a much bigger price tag. $45 million, which is 2500 a foot. 164% in in 5 years. That’s like double what the stock market did in that time.

I know it seems nuts. You’re going to tell me it’s not. Well, look, I know it’s extraordinary, but I also know what the factors were to lead to this tremendous appreciation. And obviously, the renovation is a huge part of that appreciation. Renovating for someone you don’t know seems risky. It is risky, right? You will have to have a lot of courage to and money and money to take on such a big project honestly and be willing to invest so much money into a new project and do it with your own very bold vision in terms of how you

do things and and your own taste. I do believe that this James Bond inspired vibe will attract very high-profile clients. He didn’t go neutral and he didn’t go very light with color scheme. He really wanted to make an impact and put his own um taste here, which is interesting because when people are thinking about real estate and and flipping a house, you don’t go bold.

You don’t go big. You don’t go over the top. He breaks every one of those rules here. I know this is such a different strategy, honestly. And that’s why I feel like with a whole new reinvention of this home, new story, um, new materials, beautiful vibe, I feel like we’re going to get that, you know, one of one person.

And at the end of the day, Ray, we just need one that one special person who’s going to fall in love with the home exactly the way it is. And she’s had success selling Stark’s bold designs. Just this year, she sold two of his new mansions in the same neighborhood. The transactions broke price records in Stone Creek Ranch and those nearby sales now help fuel Palaso Dago’s dramatic appreciation.

If we erase the the homes for one second and we just also talk about the neighborhood and the and the underlying value of land over that same period, what did a parcel go for uh around 5 years ago and what does what’s the most recent transaction on a parcel now? Yeah, so these are 2 and a half acre lots, right? So at that time they were about $1.8 $8 million each.

The last one that traded was 6 million. However, you can’t even find there are no vacant lots left in this community. And it’s really difficult to find 2 and 1/2 acres in Palm Beach County right now to build mega homes. So, that was a 3x increase in in dirt. Just that. Yes. That is crazy. And and honestly, I feel like the dirt is going to double because the only upcoming potential sales would be tearowns.

And as you know, this is only um a community with 36 estate homes. So, I feel like there’s tremendous value to the land as well. Part of uh what I promised at the beginning of the video was getting an understanding of the why uh of the uh appreciation. So, we talked about the the renovation. uh it’s dramatic and and obviously that uh infused more capital into the asset.

But then we also have the neighborhood and the long list of VIP neighbors. Among the just 37 residences are several current and former CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, a pop star, and right next door to Palazzo Dilago, billionaire hedge fund manager and owner of the New York Mets, Steve Cohen. And there’s Sonata and I touring the Rocky Brook estate, which was also her listing before the billionaire bought it and moved in.

If someone’s considering buying in this neighborhood and wondering about appreciation, the fact that one of the most successful hedge fund managers in America chose this neighborhood helps them to make a decision that I’m going to spend a boatload of money on a house. Yeah, people typically do look, you know, who else owns in the community that’s important to them.

The other thing that impacts value is supply. And this is a very small neighborhood. Micro market. A micro market. A very luxurious micro market. And the the guard at the gate is armed. Yes. Yeah. It’s nice. They’re trained and they’re usually a retired law enforcement or military. So that’s a big factor. That’s a huge factor. It really is.

The other important aspect is that we still have very strong demand for luxurious mega homes and trophy homes in Florida because we saw a big influx and continued influx of buyers from California, from New York, from Connecticut and they want what you see here and the tax advantages that Florida affords them. Absolutely.

One of the things that you have said to me off camera that we will now say on camera is that the layout of this house is particularly attractive to people. I have held the floor plan of this home as a a closely guarded secret and I never disclosed it to different prospects. Only when someone was ready to buy this home would actually disclose it.

What do you mean? You mean the blueprint? The blueprints cuz can’t they tell what the layout is based on number of times that we’ve toured the place. Well, someone would really need to, you know, be very good at it. But the actual architectural plans like I’ve held as a, you know, guarded secret. So, what is it in general? But what is it about the layout of this house that that you believe is so attractive? I think what’s so special about it is that first you have the volume ceiling.

So you have these great dramatic ceilings which are important. 30 foot ceilings are good. Uh let’s move cuz I’ve been to a lot of houses with 30ft ceilings. So seven bedrooms, 10 bath. But what I think about the layout in terms of like you saw the beautiful family kitchen with the Florida room that flows into the club room and her office.

And then you have a separate chef’s kitchen which I think is wonderful where a chef or catering company can have a private entrance into the home. And that entertainment space is is like a world away from the primary and the kids spaces and and the the primary the wellness area. Oh yeah. Which is on the completely on the other side and it’s close to the tennis court.

So it just flows which I think is important. Some homes feel closed in or choppy and you know all of that impacts the emotion when you walk through the home and this home just quote unquote feels good. But that’s it’s an algorithm of many different factors. So it’s it’s not one single thing about the layout.

It’s a bunch of things that that work together that’s layered. And when when people come here, they feel it. That’s correct. When you sell this house for the fourth time? Yes. You will have done around $100 million in transactions on a single house. Did you ever imagine that you could sell one house four times? And it No. Honestly, this is a first.

This next clip was how I was supposed to end the video. Sonata 45 million asking price. I’m super excited to see uh what this goes for. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. But there is a giant update. Soon after our tour, Sonata sold Palaso While she won’t reveal details about who bought the house, the buyer broker has confirmed actor, producer, entrepreneur Mark Wahlberg bought the place in October.

The deal closed for 37 million including all the furnishings. That’s 11 million more than what it sold for earlier this year and more than double what it went for five years ago. The total value of Sonata’s four transactions on this one listing, $16 million. Just want to say a huge thank you to Sonata for the tours past and present.

And a big thank you to Microise over at Legendary Productions for his legendary video shot by Lucian. And thank you to the man behind this camera, our DP on the tour, Josh Yo, over at Make Art Now. See you next time. That was perfect. Is there anything in here? No, these are just bags. Where do you get stuff like this to to actually do this? Is it Is this the stuff that you bought? Yes.

Are you serious? Yeah. This is These are all things you bought and are at your house and you just brought the empty box. So, I literally keep all of the boxes like when I buy things. Is this Is this a true story? I swear. Yeah. Your staging boxes are your are the it’s the artifacts of your shopping sprees. Yes.

And you for staging like hello. It makes such a big difference. Yeah. That’s why she has to sell one house four times because she has a shopping addiction.