A major Democratic contributor and financial executive from Boston has purchased a mansion in Palm Beach for a record $30 million.

Howard J. Kessler and his wife, Patricia Michele, bought the beachfront property at 120 Casa Bendita from the estate of the late Sophie and Leonard Davis, longtime benefactors and founding members of the Kravis Center.

“This is the highest recorded sale for a single-family home in this county,” senior appraiser Joy Hearn of the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office, said Wednesday.

The asking price for the property, which was built in 1975, was $39 million. The Kesslers signed the deed July 16, according to Hearn.

In Broward County, the highest sales price of a home was nowhere near as high.

Broward Property Appraiser Bill Markham said the top price paid was $12.8 million for a house at 536 Coconut Isle in Fort Lauderdale. Leslie and Sharyn Turchin sold the house in June 2000 to John F. and Susan Herma. The Hermas also bought the lot next door for $4.3 million, Markham said.

The Palm Beach estate includes a 16,349-square-foot main house that has five bedrooms and nine bathrooms and a 4,270-square-foot guesthouse, property appraiser’s records show. The property has two swimming pools, tennis courts, a gazebo and a greenhouse. It also has 367 feet of ocean frontage.

“There are not that many large parcels on the ocean,” Hearn said.

Kessler is the founder of Boston-based Kessler Financial Services, an international company that markets affinity credit cards, selling them to members of specific interest groups, such as political or religious organizations.

He also co-founded iBelong Inc., a Massachusetts-based company that provides customized Internet portals for companies and organizations. Kessler did not return a phone call seeking comment on Wednesday.

The Kesslers have been big contributors to the Democratic Party. They gave at least $150,000 to the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee since 1998 and contributed about $105,000 more since 1997 to individual candidates, most of them Democrats. Recipients include Florida Sen. Bill Nelson and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to Federal Elections Commission records.

Howard Kessler also was on the list of contributors who stayed overnight at the White House during the Clinton administration.

Jenni Bergal can be reached at or 954-356-4592.