Businessman and real estate investor Steven Apple is linked to the purchase, recorded at $8.2 million, of 1554 N. Ocean Way, the house next to his home.
An entity linked to businessman and Palm Beach real estate investor Steven L. Apple has bought a house on North Ocean Way — next door to his own home — for a recorded $8.2 million.
On the far North End near the inlet, the four-bedroom house that just changed hands is at 1554 N. Ocean Way. It’s immediately adjacent to Apple’s larger house at 1575 N. Ocean Blvd., which he has homesteaded as his primary residence in the latest tax rolls.
Entities controlled by Apple also own several other houses in the same neighborhood, but they are not contiguous.
Apple bought the house through a Florida limited liability company named 1554 N. Ocean Way LLC, according to the deed recorded July 3. That company is managed by Palm Beach real estate attorney Timothy Hanlon, business records show.
The 1950s-era house that just sold was the longtime home of the late Frank Quinn Stepan Sr., who bought it with his late wife, Jean “Snowy” Stepan, in 1987 for a recorded $375,000. Stepan Sr., who went by Quinn, died at 86 on May 13. His wife died in 2021.
The Stepans had longtime ties to Winnetka, Illinois. Stepan Sr. for years ran his family business, Stepan Co., and helped grow it into an international powerhouse in the chemical industry. The company is based in Northbrook, Illinois.
The former Stepan house in Palm Beach was built in 1958 and has two stories with 3,961 square feet of living space, inside and out, property records show. It stands on a quarter-acre lot, one house west of the beach, at the southeast corner of Arabian Road and North Ocean Way.
Linda R. Olsson Inc. handled both sides of the sale. One of the Stepans’ daughters, Jennifer Beqaj, is an agent with the agency, which is headed by broker Linda Olsson.
The house was listed for sale with a price of just under $9 million at the tail end of May, the multiple listing service shows. The deal closed July 1.
The house was sold by one of the Stepans’ sons, Frank Quinn Stepan Jr., who acted individually and as trustee of a trust in his father’s name, according to the deed.
The house stands immediately east of Apple’s house, which his trust bought for $3.2 million in 2003. Built in 1984, Apple’s five-bedroom house has 5,848 total square feet. Its lot measures two-fifths of an acre.
Apple owns Apple Rubber Products, a manufacturer of O-rings, rubber seals and related products in Lancaster, New York.
He has bought and sold property in Palm Beach since 1995, courthouse records show, His real estate portfolio on the far North End of Palm Beach currently includes two houses at 303 and 323 Arabian Road, down the street from the house that just changed hands; and a home at 1570 N. Ocean Way, two houses north of the former Stepan residence.
In the same area, his entities own a lakefront house at 400 Caribbean Road and a house on a dry lot at 300 Indian Road, records show. Closer to town on the near North End, his trust owns a condominium in Lake Towers building at 250 Bradley Place.
Apple, Hanlon and Beqaj could not be reached for comment. The buyer’s plans for the house at 1554 N. Ocean Way are unclear.
But it’s not unusual for Palm Beach residents to acquire houses or land adjacent to their properties. In June, a company controlled by developer Todd Michael Glaser and trusts associated with Worth Avenue landlord Jane Holzer split the $15.524 million cost of 1950s house on a lot between their properties in the Estate Section. In the off-market deal, Glaser and Holzer each paid $7.762 million for 111 Via Del Lago with plans to raze the house and use the land to expand their estates.
Last year, Gretchen S. Jordan paid $14 million for a house next door to hers on the North End that had sold in 2022 for $7.77 million at 515 N. Lake Way. The seller in the most recent transaction for No. 515 was an entity controlled by investment banker Roberto de Guardiola. He had won the town’s approval to expand the one-story house and add a second-floor addition, although de Guardiola never began work on that project.