Kim Bepler, a trustee of Fordham University, purchased a waterfront home in Palm Beach for $30 million, according to records from Mar. 17. The property at 751 Island Drive was sold by the estate of Pat Johnson, with her children acting as trustees.
The sale is notable due to its high price and the prominence of both buyer and seller. Bepler is the widow of Stephen Bepler, who was a longtime executive at Capital Group in New York and also served as a trustee at Fordham University before his death in 2016.
The listing agents for the property were Jim McCann and Christopher Hughes Bode of Premier Estate Properties, while Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate represented the buyer. The house was originally built in 1988 on a 0.4-acre lot and features five bedrooms, five bathrooms, one half-bathroom, a pool, a dock, and 110 feet of waterfront.
Pat Johnson was the widow of Richard S. Johnson, founder of Flagler National Bank. After SunTrust Banks acquired Flagler in 1992 and later merged with BB&T in 2019, it became known as Truist Bank. The Johnsons were benefactors of the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum, which opened in 2008. Richard Johnson died in 2012; Pat Johnson passed away last July.
The Johnson family had purchased the Island Drive home for $2.4 million in 1994. They listed it for $35 million last November on Zillow but ultimately sold it for $30 million.
This transaction is among several high-value sales this season in Palm Beach. Earlier this month, financier Mark Marcello bought an estate within the Mar-a-Lago Security Zone for $36 million. Also this month, Patricia Ann Kahn’s estate sold an oceanfront home designed by Marion Sims Wyeth for $28 million. In February, Ambrose K. Monell sold his lakefront residence for $57 million.
