Listed at $54.9M, oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach is being marketed as a tear-down

A change in strategy means an oceanfront mansion is now being marketed as a tear-down with a price of $54.9 million in Palm Beach’s historic Estate Section.

On a lot of nearly an acre, the estate at 101 Jungle Road entered the “land” category of the Palm Beach Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service last week.

Substantially rebuilt in the 1980s, the two-story, 1950s-era mansion on the property remains in the MLS’s single-family home category at the same price — $5 million less than what the estate carried when it entered the market in September 2022.

The land measures about nine-tenths of an acre with 200 feet of ocean frontage, thanks to its beach parcel across South Ocean Boulevard.

“We wanted to provide optionality on how the property could be considered” by would-be buyers, broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate told the Palm Beach Daily News about why the estate had entered the land listings.

He added that any buyer who wants to build a new oceanfront home on a sizable lot has limited options in Palm Beach, especially in the Estate Section.

“It’s such a spectacular and rare piece of property,” Angle said. “It’s hard to find 200 feet of oceanfront” for sale.

Angle is marketing the property with a digitally altered photo to show what the lot would look like if it were vacant.

The mansion initially had a price tag in 2022 of $62.9 million, which dropped to about $60 million in March 2023. In January, Angle reduced that asking sum to the same price that’s now in the land listings.

The five-bedroom mansion was built in 1955 but substantially rebuilt after a 1983 fire.

The two-story residence with Bermuda- and Georgian-influenced architecture has 13,230 total square feet, of which 10,044 square feet is air-conditioned.

The mansion was the longtime home of the late political activist Elaine Schuster, who died in August 2022 at 90. Her businessman husband, the late Gerry Schuster, died at 89 in 2019.

Elaine Schuster bought the house in her name for $7.7 million in 2001, property records show.

In addition to the residence — with its oceanside loggia and a terrace above it — there’s a cabana by the pool.

Angle’s sales listing for the mansion describes the “beautiful, sweeping views” of the Atlantic Ocean from the primary rooms, including the second-floor primary bedroom suite.

As of Tuesday, there were three other Palm Beach houses priced at $39 million or in the MLS’s land category:

• 690 Island Drive, priced at $47.9 million by Brown Harris Stevens agents Liza Pulitzer and Whitney McGurk, who hold the co-listing with agent Chris Vila of Palm Beach Realty Advisors;

• 240 N. Ocean Blvd., priced at $39 million by Compass Florida agent Elizabeth DeWoody; and

• 748 Island Drive, priced at $38 million by agents Lisa and John Cregan of Sotheby’s International Realty.

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Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach mansion is now being marketed as a $54.9 million tear-down