Palm Beach society: Resident sells California home to couple with beaucoups Grammys

Palm Beach resident Don Burns is really good at the real estate business ... and he’s not even in the real estate business.

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In a testament to his skill, his latest transaction saw him inking a deal with musicians/producers/singer-songwriters/entrepreneurs Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz ⁠— multiple Grammy winners both. They forked over $21 million for a house of his in La Jolla, California.

Burns was first noted for his Southampton deal about 10 years ago, when he sold the esteemed Old Trees ⁠— a Georgian style manse on acres and acres of waterfront that he picked up for a song ⁠— to Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein for $40 million, give or take a buck.

A few years later, he set his sights on La Jolla’s Razor House ⁠— named for nearby Razor Point ⁠— a modern masterpiece perched on the Pacific, empty and raw, because its builder had filed or bankruptcy.

Bank of America wanted $45 million for the heap. Burns made a lowball offer, which was turned down, and then sat back and waited. As the real estate market continued its freefall, he made an even lower offer of $14 million,

And he got it.

After finishing the interiors of the concrete-and-glass design by Wallace Cunningham, Burns enjoyed the house for a few years and then looked for a buyer.

He found one. Two actually. And now Keys and Beatz will call Razor House their home.

Reign in Spain ... Palm Beachers take the best summer vacations ⁠— and they are very generous about pushing us an e-mail so we know what we’re missing.

Jimmy Borynack and and Adolfo Zaralegui are back from one European idyll and are about to embark on another.

The duo had a great two-and-a-half weeks in sunny Marbella ⁠— “The backyard of deposed monarchs,” Jimmy described it ⁠— as the guests of Marquesa Barbara San Damian.

And believe us when we tell you that when it comes to taking care of guests, the Marquesa could teach Mr. Hilton a thing or two.

There’s breakfasts, lunches, dinners, sunset drinks at the Marbella Club, and a stellar guest list, including a royal or two.

For example, lunch at the Marquesa’s was for 32 guests, including Iranian cosmetics princess Nasrin Zhiyan Abdi, The Duke of Seville, and the Duke of Alba, who has more titles than any monarch, plus 70 palaces around Europe.

The pair fit right in. Adolfo’s maternal sixth-great grandfather was a Spanish marquise. Marquise Handsome, we think his name was.

OK, not really.

No airs were put on. “I carried my own decorations,” Jimmy joked, and the convivial bunch talked about everything from art to entertainment to politics, travel, and the economy.

But not their personal economies, of course.

“The only thing they never mention is money,” Jimmy cracked.

Now the duo are preparing to head to Rome for a few days, where they will pick up a weeklong cruise to Monte Carlo ⁠— giant leap of faith for the cruise-phobic Jimmy,

“It was the shortest possible cruise that he would go on,” Adolfo said. “He may decide to jump overboard and swim to shore.”

After Monte Carlo it’s Madrid for a week and Paris for a week.

No jumping is expected.

Heard ... That President Donald J. Trump is crossing the aisle. The White House has announced that POTUS has tapped Palm Beach resident Michele Kessler ⁠— a stalwart Democrat ⁠— to serve as a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Her term expires on Sept. 1, 2025.