Bunny Hiatt and Jack Elkins of Engel & Volkers in Manalapan represented the buyer. According to Hiatt, “Timing and market conditions played greatly to our clients favor in acquiring the property, even at the asking price… it was a tremendous value for the area.”
The 31,000-square-foot house is on three acres of ocean-to-Intracoastal Waterway land. It has 305 feet of ocean and lake frontage, a tennis court, and a dock. It has an appraised market value of $20.2 million according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office and had been listed by the seller, Germantown-Seneca Joint Venture, at $17.9 million. Carol Hickman of Sotheby’s International Realty, represented the owner.
The property has seen its share of sales transactions: The home was purchased by the late National Enquirer founder and publisher Generoso Pope, Jr. and his wife philanthropist Lois Pope in the 1970s. In 1995, Delray Beach developer Frank McKinney bought it for $15 million, renovated it and sold it the next year to Daniel Gittleman for $27.5 million. In 2004, McKinney reacquired the estate for $19 million and then sold it again for $22.4 million to Peter and Tamara Lowes. The Lowes sold the house in June 2009 to Germantown-Seneca for an amount almost equal to exiting Bank of America liens on the property, according to Palm Beach County tax records.
—Mary Kate Leming
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