Deborah Day travels regularly between Palm Beach and Orlando for her job as a forensic psychologist at the practice she founded, Physiological Affiliates, which has offices in both cities.
With this schedule, she and her husband, personal trainer Raul Viera, bought a South End condominium on Ibis Isle six years ago.
“We also own a home in North Carolina,” Day says. “But Palm Beach is our happy place. We love the area, and we think about Palm Beach as our retirement community.”
Their Ibis Isle condo, though, is “relatively small” for hosting her adult children, she adds. “So I thought it would be a brilliant idea to buy a second home here for them.”
Putting that plan into motion, a year ago she and Viera bought a two-bedroom, two-bath condominium, No. 107S, at Sutton Place — also on the South End — at 2778 S. Ocean Blvd.
But as the old saying goes, the best-laid plans often go awry.
“My son, a transplant surgeon, works all the time. He’s been down once in all the years we’ve been here. And my daughter married and now lives in North Carolina with a baby and four dogs — they’ve been down only once,” Day says. “It doesn’t make sense (to keep the second apartment). In the future, we will do it again, but now it just sits there.”
That’s why the couple has listed their guest apartment — with 2,100 square feet of living space — inside and on its covered patio — for sale through agent Jason Haverkamp of William Raveis South Florida.
Renovated by Shani Core Interiors last year with Italian tiles, Waterworks hardware, Brizo plumbing fixtures and designer wallcoverings, the first-floor condo is being offered mostly furnished in “turnkey” condition for $1.695 million. The apartment will be sold with parking spaces for two cars.
In the open-floorplan layout, foot traffic flows from the foyer out to the living and dining areas, with the kitchen just adjacent. These main rooms, central to the floorplan, are flanked by the bedroom suites. Banks of impact-glass sliding doors off all the north-facing rooms open to the patio, which runs the length of the condo. The apartment also has its own laundry room.
“I love that it’s on the first floor and has a beautiful patio with a green space and lake views,” Day says.
Several rooms have garden vistas, but the kitchen and main bedroom also offer views of the Intracoastal Waterway.
The north-facing condo is on the first floor of the south building of the two-building complex, which was developed in 1981. The apartment was in its original condition when Day first saw it. But she recognized its potential and planned the renovation to suit her family’s needs.
Crews replaced the electrical wiring, some of the plumbing and the air-conditioning system. They also installed recessed lighting and new sliding doors with impact-resistant glass.
The design team transformed the galley-style kitchen, which originally had been closed off from the living area, Day says: “We opened it up so that it was in an open concept (configuration) with the living and dining areas.”
With a work island, the kitchen is finished with custom cabinetry from Palm Beach Cabinetry, quartz counters, a sea-glass-colored tile backsplash and high-end stainless-steel appliances by Bosch.
In the main bedroom suite, the design team reconfigured the closet area.
“We took a little bit of space from the bedroom and elongated the closet, putting a bank of closets on one side that includes a pull-out triple mirror, laundry baskets and extra storage,” Day explains.
Crews also renovated and reconfigured the main bathroom to include a separate toilet area and to accommodate a larger shower and cabinetry with more counter space.
Day says she likes to have a secondary bathroom that makes a statement.
“We particularly did it in beautiful colors with specialty wallpaper, and it’s just gorgeous. It visually pops,” she explains.
That wallpaper also inspired the blue tile used in the walk-in shower and the choice of blue paint for the cabinetry.
Floors in the main areas are covered in large-format tiles, although the bedrooms are carpeted.
With round-the-clock door personnel, the two buildings at Sutton Place have six floors each with a total of 76 units. Amenities include a gym, a clubhouse with a kitchen and a sauna. The pool area has a whirlpool spa and cabanas facing the Intracoastal Waterway.
Day says she picked Sutton Place for several reasons.
Details in the wet bar in the living area include custom cabinetry, decorator lighting and wallpaper.
“It’s across from the Four Seasons (Resort Palm Beach), and it has a private walkway to the beach (on the opposite side of the coastal road),” she says.
The condo also is about a quarter-mile north of Lake Avenue and the bridge that leads to and from Lake Worth Beach. Day noted Sutton Place’s proximity to the Lake Worth Beach Waterside Farmers Market, which is held on Saturdays during the winter tourist season on a parking lot just west of the coastal road near the bridge.
The views from the condo property itself were also a draw.
“From the pool area,” she explains, “you have the ability to see downtown West Palm Beach and the Lake Worth bridge.”
Sutton Place, meanwhile, has a charm all its own, she adds.
“While it has many amenities, it’s small enough that we know the neighbors and it has a very friendly, small-community feeling.”
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To see more photos of No. 107S at 2778 S. Ocean Blvd. in Palm Beach, click on the photo gallery at the top of this page.
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For more than 20 years, Christine Davis has written about Palm Beach real estate in the "On the Market" feature in the Palm Beach Daily News.
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