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The new owners of the century-old estate known as Miradero, once owned by Lila Vanderbilt Webb, are attempting to remodel it. Photo provided

By Steve Plunkett

A new property owner’s stubborn second attempt to win a variance to remodel a century-old oceanfront estate will instead lead Gulf Stream to devise new building rules for its remaining handful of historic homes.

Jay and Christi Turner purchased the property, called “Miradero,” at 1443 N. Ocean Blvd. from the late Bob Ganger’s family for $21.6 million last September and quickly assembled a design team to bring the buildings into the 21st century.

But when architect Richard Sammons presented the plans to the Town Commission on June 12, including seeking 2,605 square feet more than the allowable limit of floor space, he quickly learned one hard truth about Gulf Stream: The town does not easily grant variances.

Shocked commissioners wondered why the team had not worked with town staff to avoid asking for the variance to the building code. Sammons, of Palm Beach- and New York-based Fairfax & Sammons Architecture, tried to explain.

“You asked why it hadn’t come up before — because when we look at the site, the site’s enormous. It just never occurred to us that we were even anywhere near (the limit). … It doesn’t feel crowded on the site. … It just didn’t occur to us. It was our mistake,” he said.

Jay Turner, of the billionaire family that owns Dollar General stores, conceded that town staff had warned them that winning a variance was unlikely.   

“Our thinking was, if there’s anytime you’re going to grant a variance, it would be this one. The house was built a hundred years ago. There’s not many of those left in Gulf Stream,” he said.

Unswayed, commissioners sent the application back to the Architectural Review and Planning Board and told the Turner team to work with staff to develop an acceptable proposal.

Architectural designer Scott Collison returned with redrawn plans to the commission’s Aug. 14 meeting. Some living space in the main house was changed to a single-car garage. And two of the original four bays of an “enormous” garage were gone, bringing the floor space overage down —but still 959 square feet too much. 

So he still needed relief.

“You’re requesting a variance still and you know at the town we really don’t grant variances overall. And I brought it up during the last meeting,” Commissioner Joan Orthwein said. 

She praised the house plan, which remained faithful to original Palm Beach architect Maurice Fatio’s 1928 design.

“It’s just gorgeous, and I’d like to see you have it,” she said. “But also I don’t want to jeopardize our variances in our rules. It opens the door for other people to get certain things.”

Vice Mayor Tom Stanley was open to relief for the “pretty unique” circumstances.

“There’s no other house that’s ever going to be like this,” he said.

In the end commissioners directed Town Manager Trey Nazzaro to draft new code language to cover historic properties.

He said that could take perhaps two years.

“We would have plenty of time to study it and provide something that is thoughtful and appropriate instead of just rushing through,” Nazzaro said.

As for Miradero, the town granted a permit to demolish the swimming pool, part of the main house and garage/pool house. The permit also calls for destruction of the gate house at the front, which is more than 1,000 square feet, to avoid having to grant a variance. 

But the plan is to use the gate house as a staging area for the estimated three-year construction period and reapply to amend the demolition permit to keep the gate house after the town enacts the new historical building rules.

Ganger, a former town commissioner and vice mayor, wrote a history of his house titled, “Lila Vanderbilt Webb’s Miradero: Window on an Era,” about the heiress’ home that he and his father bought in 1970.

The original property was split in two in the 1930s with the resulting properties sharing a common wall. Architect Sammons described the Turners’ portion as the estate’s master bedroom and service wing and the side to the north as its “pleasure dome.”

The northern side of the estate at 1465 N. Ocean Blvd., with the original tower and bedrooms, sold for $16.65 million in 2023.