Bruce Helander (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

West Palm Beach collage and pop artist Bruce Helander, a darling among Palm Beach’s art collectors and a popular figure on the society circuit, may soon lose his beloved classic home.

The bowler hat-wearing artist and his wife, Claudia, were notified last week that the U.S. Bank National Association filed a notice to have the home sold on the proverbial courthouse steps unless the couple comes up with $945,033.

That includes the principal on an $882,970 mortgage in 2006, and more than $2,060 in late fees.

Helander bought in 1998 for $195,000 but, according to court records, routinely borrowed against it. The digs are well-known for being the stage for some of the best parties in town and its second-to-none lush backyard.

Helander, whose art has been shown nationally, was the first hipster to buy a home in one of the downtown’s most neglected and blighted areas. He was soon followed by dozens of others, and Grandview Heights became livable again.

Helander listed the house in 2005 for $1.2 million.

“We didn’t know the bank was filing,” Helander said. “We were negotiating a new traditional mortgage. But this is a classic case of being upside down. The house appraised at less than $500,000.”

A cross between a discount motel and a beachside nursing home? Na ... it's Tiger Woods' home under construction on Jupiter Island. (Splash News/Special to Page2Live)

Elin Nordegren and Tiger Woods

Is it any wonder that golfer Tiger Woods had everybody building his Jupiter Island home sign a confidentiality agreement? I mean, look at this place! It’s a cross between a discount motel and a beachside nursing home! But hey, from what I’ve been told, Woods’ Swedish missus, Elin Nordegren, is calling the shots on this one. Woods bought four adjacent properties on the tony island for a Martin County-record $44.5 million in 2006. He then tore down the existing homes on the 12 acres, including a classic Bahamas-style manse. The new 9,700-square-foot home is split between the living quarters (right on the photo above) and a gym (left side). Both sides will be connected with a glass-covered walkway, according to the blueprints. Good thing the plans call for so much foliage around the house that few passers-by will be able to see it! For more photos, and the poll, look below or click (Read more…)

Michael Jordan, as he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame two weeks ago (AP photo)

The plans for former NBA star and basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan’s new castle in Jupiter are in.

And the stack of papers recently submitted to town officials by Jordan’s architects, contractor, consultants and lawyer show that residents of the Bears Club, a posh golf community, better get ready for something the size of a Walmart.

The developer, Lavelle Construction Corp., submitted applications for a 37,942-square-foot building, with 26,000 square feet under air conditioning. There’s a cottage and guard gate.

In all, Jordan’s crib will have 11 bedrooms, and a yet-to-be-determined number of bathrooms.

The house, at 172 Bears Club Road, will dwarf most in the north side of Palm Beach County, and all around it at the Jack Nicklaus development.

Jordan's property (Courtesy Google Maps)

According to property appraiser records, most homes around Jordan’s are about 10,000 square feet.

Jordan’s slamming down $7,627,669 to build the two-story home, which will feature an elevator, a grand stairway, 10-foot ceilings and a giant fireplace.

So far, the Hanes undies pitchman has paid $152,553 to the town in permits and other fees.

Jordan, 46, bought two adjacent lots at the Jack Nicklaus-founded Bears Club last year for a total $4.8 million. He’s got three acres of wooded land adjacent to a golf course. Golf, and the privacy of a gated community, is what caught Jordan’s attention.

The sheer size of the soon-to-go-up digs, slightly smaller than the beachfronter in Palm Beach that Donald Trump sold for $100 million last year, is already having some local environmentalists chomping at the bit.

“Who needs that kind of a footprint,” said Joanne Davis, a growth management specialist with 1000 Friends of Florida. “It’s insane, a waste. Cities see nothing more than a tax base in these giant homes, but I can’t imagine anyone needing anything like that, except to show off.

“This house is going to require an enormous use of natural resources for no good reason.”

While Air Jordan’s manager in Washington, D.C., hasn’t commented (for reasons of security and privacy, she said), town officials said the part-owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats is well within code.

“The Bears Club was specifically designed for large lots,”said town zoning principal planner Scott Tatcher. “The Bears Club has done a good job setting aside upland pine areas and wetlands to offset construction. It’s true other homes are in the 10,000-square-feet range, but he is building on two lots.”

In yet another not-so-green move, the six-time NBA champion Chicago Bull has had most tall trees on the property taken out.

 Loading ...

will

– Who’d have thunk it!? Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am loves the Miami Dolphins so much that he’d put his bod on the line for the team. He posted on his blog this video plea to team owner Stephen Ross to grant him a tryout before the season starts next week. At 5-foot-4 on high heels, however, the self-described “fast” will.i.am may have a hard time finding a position, except maybe kicker. He says he wants to be a punt returner. “Yo, Ross, this ain’t no joke, I wanna play,” will says on the video. The team had no reax to the rapper’s come-ons. A source, meanwhile, tells me Dolphins officials ordered jerseys with Black Eyed Peas hottie Fergie’s name on the back, fueling rumors that the band will play at halftime of the Sept. 21 Monday night home opener.

Forest Lawn

– From the Great Beyond, Michael Jackson is pushing real estate prices up by at least 30 percent. Future stiffs have gone wacko for burial plots near Forest Lawn Memorial Park mausoleum where the King of Pop himself was interred last week in Glendale, Calif. Burial plots that went for $7,000 a few weeks ago now are creeping toward $10,000, reports TMZ. Interested in a crypt for two inside Jackson’s mausoleum? Fuhgettaboutit! They’re now trading for $34,000 a piece.

– Hey, A-Rod, got something to tell us? Kate Hudson, the actress galpal of Miami’s New York Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez, is stepping out with a big fat sparkler on her ring finger. Spies for the New York Daily News spotted her with the bling at a recent Bombers game. Seeing that it took the lovebirds weeks in the spring to admit they were an item, it’ll probably be years for them to confirm they’re engaged.

Nightscape standout and charity organizer Leslie Holvey-Linder, a realtor by day, was feted by 100 of her closest friends Thursday at Bice restaurant in Palm Beach, after she was named managing partner of Barclays International Realty. With co-owner Shirley Wyner working on the company’s European clients, Holvey-Linder has been charged with re-focusing the firm on the Palm Beach market. Check out our gallery by Michele Sandberg.

Stage-diving punk-rock icon Iggy Pop, who lives in a $1.4 million-home in the Sunny South Acres neighborhood of Miami, made a rare public appearance in the Magic City over the weekend. Pop, now 62, showed up at The Awarehouse gallery for Saturday’s unveiling of a limited-edition t-shirt with his mug. It was done by local graffiti artist Claudio Picasso. (The tees are available for 20 bucks a pop here.)

Madoff

A talkative inmate at the Butner federal prison complex in North Carolina says $65 billion swindler Bernie Madoff told him he suffers from cancer and is close to punching his ticket.

Re-igniting rumors that the 71-year-old Ponzi schemer was fighting pancreatic cancer after he was arrested by the FBI late last year, the New York Post this morning claims a fellow inmate of Madoff says the ex-Wall Streeter is on “20 pills a day” and “not doing very well.”

“He talks about it all the time,” the unnamed inmate told the paper.

That may sound like good news to some, but don’t dance on the guy’s grave just yet!

One of several authors of recently released Madoff books, Madoff With The Money writer Jerry Oppenheimer, says an unnamed inmate can’t be all that trustworthy.

However, Oppenheimer adds, “cancer devastated the Madoff family.”

“It wouldn’t be a shocker if he were struck with cancer,” Oppenheimer told Page2Live. “He did look gaunt and skinny at his sentencing. His son Andy suffered from lymphoma. His brother, Peter, had stomach cancer. One of his nephews, Roger, died of cancer in his 30s.

“However, I asked several family members who helped me with the book if Bernie ever had cancer, and they all said ‘no!’”

Besides, wouldn’t a weasel like Madoff use his alleged illness to ask for a reduction of sentence on humanitarian grounds? Madoff, whose seized house on North Lake Way in Palm Beach is being put up for sale by authorities, was handed down a 150-year sentence June 29 without addressing his health.

“That’s the point,” Oppenheimer said. “His $7,000-suit (tailored to hide his cellphone) just hung on him at the sentencing. But he didn’t tell the judge anything about dying.”

Said another Madoff author, Too Good To Be True writer Erin Arvedlund: “His camp leaked that cancer story soon after he was arrested. Could it be true? Sure. Why didn’t use it to get sympathy? Because he wanted the focus on him getting a harsh punishment so that his family would be left alone.”

 Loading ...

Sierra's ministry

– Miss Florida 2008, Sierra Minott, has re-enrolled at Palm Beach Atlantic University. But it’s unclear how she’ll keep her head in the psych program at West Palm Beach’s Christian school. Minott, according to the university’s website, is working on a book for teens and developing her own talk show for a Christian TV network. Of course, the school also will squeeze Minott for all’s she got. She’s appearing on radio and TV commercials touting the institution (check them out here, here and here). “I’ve always been an advocate for inner beauty. Your beauty has to start from the inside out, not the outside in,” said Minott. The majority of her appearances as Miss Florida so far centered on youth, at churches and schools. “It was a ministry until the very end,” Minott said of her just-ended reign.

Jackson

– Big-deal SoFla restaurateur Jack Jackson is joining the Boca-based restaurant chain the BOVA Group as president, the group announced this week. BOVA is co-owned by Anthony Bova and Fort Lauderdale lawyer Scott Rothstein, aka Gov. Charlie Crist’s moneybags. Rothstein owns the lawfirm that employs rookie Palm Beach County Commish Steve Abrams. Jackson, meanwhile, is best-known as actor Burt Reynolds’ partner in Fort Lauderdale’s long ago destination restaurant Burt and Jacks. Jackson has owned a steakhouse named after him on Las Olas for a decade, and a nearby seafood place. Both are being gobbled up by BOVA as part of the deal. In addition to now owning four major eateries in Boca and Fort Lauderdale, BOVA is looking for more. It’s negotiating to take over another Boca place, the sports bar named after Miami Heat superstar Dwyane Wade that closed last year.

– Hightailing it outtahere: Four-time NFL pro-bowler Darren Sharper. The New Orleans Saints safety has put his off-season home in Aventura on the market for $3.3 million, according to South Florida Block Shopper. He bought the four-bedroomer two years ago for $2.8 million.

Gates

Here’s the good news: Multi-billionaire Bill Gates may be shopping for waterfront properties in Martin and Palm Beach counties, with $65 million to spend.

Here’s the bad: His peeps are low-balling the pants off sellers.

A wet-behind-the-ears analyst with the Seattle-based Cascade Investment, Gates’ investment arm, signed contracts on three luxury cribs on Jupiter Island and two in the Town of Palm Beach over the past two months. A real estate source said he brandished papers showing the availability of a $65 million line-of-credit.

The youngster, Justin Hance, 25, claims to be with the firm Front Range Investment in some cases and Lake Clarke Holdings in others.

But here’s the Fact: Hance’s office is at the Kirkland, Wa., headquarters of Gates’ Cascade. The richest man in the world reportedly sunk half of his $40 billion fortune into Cascade, to diversify into ventures other than his Microsoft. Also involved in Cascade is the world’s second richest man, Warren Buffett. He weighs $37 billion.

Hance didn’t return several calls. But according to MLS listings, Front Range paid $5 million July 13 for a 5,000-square-foot home at 100 Harbor Way, on Martin County’s Jupiter Island. The Intracoastal property, which is surrounded by sea-grapes and mangroves, had been on the market for $12 million then $7 million.

It doesn’t seem, however, that Jupiter Island will see either Gates or Buffett anytime soon. Already, the property has been put on the rental market, at a monthly season tag of $50,000-a-month.

The richest men in the world eyeing local land? You need more. And the poll.  Look below, or click (Read more…)

Angel (Courtesy Pointlessbanter.net)

– Check out the Intracoastal between the Southern and Okeechobee bridges that link downtown West Palm to Palm Beach. Like, right now! Fast-boat chases are being filmed this afternoon for a flick being produced almost entirely in South Florida. I’m told the title is Criss Cross. And the stars include John Schneider, best remembered for playing pretty red-neck Bo Duke in the the original series The Dukes of Hazard, and former teen music heartthrob Ashley Parker Angel. The latter starred in the first season of MTV’s Making the Band in 2000, which led to the creation of the Orlando rock band O-Town. The movie’s subject matter, meanwhile, is as Florida as dog-eating gators: It’s about spoiled youths!

Castroneves

– The tax evasion trial he just went through in Miami must have rubbed Dancing With The Stars winner and speed-racer Helio Castroneves the wrong way. The three-time Indianapolis winner,  just put his Coral Gables house on the market for $3.2 million. South Florida Blockshopper reports Brazilian Castroneves has lived in the six-bedroomer since 2000. Tour the mansion by clicking here. Once he sells, I hope he remembers to pay those levies.

– Philandering South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s recent trip to Hobe Sound to try to patch things up with his wife, Jenny, while she spent time with her family here, did some good after all. The Sanfords are headed to Europe today for a family vacation. Let’s see. Fly to Argentina to be with the paramour, then to Europe with the ole’ lady. Sure. That makes sense. At least this time around, according to The Huffington Post, the gov’s security details knows where he’s going.