What might be built on vacant land priced at $150 million in Palm Beach? Here's one idea

Here’s a question for you, should you have millions of dollars to spend on real estate: What might you build on an ocean-to-lake vacant lot priced at a staggering $150 million on Palm Beach’s so-called Billionaire’s Row?

The question might be harder to answer than it looks. The property — measuring about 2 acres at 1980 S. Ocean Blvd. — is largely obscured from the view of drivers by tall trees as they negotiate Sloan’s Curve, which borders the lot on its south side. The property also hasn’t changed hands in more than 50 years.

So no one would blame you if you need a little help imagining what sort of house would fit on the property, which comprises two separate lots. The eastern parcel faces 155 feet of beachfront across South Ocean Boulevard, while the irregularly shaped lakeside lot has about 270 feet of waterfront.

All of which helps explain why Corcoran Group agent Shelly Newman recently began marketing the property with a concept rendering for an Italian-style house with about 20,000 square feet of living space, inside and out. The property has been listed — at the same price — for two years.

Plans for the project have not been submitted to the town for approval but the design is said to meet all zoning- and building-code requirements. If a buyer chose to pursue the design — or tweak it to their own preferences — “it could save substantial time” during Town Hall’s often-lengthy approval process for sizable estates, Newman told the Palm Beach Daily News.

As designed, the oceanfront, seven-bedroom main house would have an expansive lakeside family wing with a square tower feature. There would also be room for three staff bedrooms, plus a separate two-bedroom guesthouse near the proposed dock.

Award-winning architect Richard Sammons of Fairfax, Sammons and Partners was the designer. He knows a thing or two about town codes as vice chairman and former chairman of the town’s powerful Architectural Commission. The board is generally tasked with approving new architecture in town unless it falls under the auspices of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The conceptual plans show a two-story house with a lower level, thanks to the relatively high elevation of the lot. On the lake side — where there’s a swimming pool — a series of terraces cascade toward the lake. That’s a similar scenario to the North End house on Hi Mount Road that just won Sammons’ firm the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach’s 2024 Schuler Award for excellence in new architecture.

The floorplan for the South Ocean Boulevard mansion would feature a central entrance hall leading to a grand staircase and a 22-by-60-foot oceanfront great room with 14-foot ceilings, Sammons told the Palm Beach Daily News.

“It’s an Italian-style house, specifically from the Veneto region,” Sammons said, adding that the architecture is a “17th-century expression” of classical Palladian design.

In addition to the eight-car garage on the lowest level, the house would have an expansive motor court on its south side. The motor court would be accessed by the main driveway in the middle of Sloan’s Curve. Plans might also include a service entrance positioned nearer the lake, Sammons said.

Although the two lots are not being marketed for sale separately, a buyer could also conceivably build two houses on them, perhaps for members of the same family, Newman said.

Both parcels are owned by attorney and real estate investor Nathan Royce Silverstein, who has ties to Newark, New Jersey, property records show. The land hasn’t changed hands in more than 50 years.

The property was once part of the estate of the late Alfred P. Sloan Jr., a former chairman of General Motors Corp. and the namesake of Sloan’s Curve.

Mansion priced at $54.9 million now in MLS’s “land” listings

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 house was built by the late Barbara Vanderbilt Whitney Henry, who at the time was married to the late Samuel Peck and later wed George W. Headley. Her estate sold it in 1983 to the late Peter A.B. Widener III and his wife, Daphne, property records show. After the Wideners divorced, they deeded the house in 1988 to Ridgeley Webster Harrison and wife Josephine, who in turn sold it to Elaine Schuster.

As of Thursday, there were three other Palm Beach houses priced at $39 million or more 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.

Last week, a vacant direct-beachfront lot of about an acre with 225 feet of shoreline sold for a recorded $85 million at 108 El Mirasol, a prime cul-de-sac on the near North End of Palm Beach. Broker Lawrence A. Moens represented the seller, ANK Palm Beach LLC, in that deal, with Corcoroan Group agents Paulette Koch acting on behalf of the buyer, a limited liability company named after the property’s address.

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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: See a "concept" mansion designed for lot priced at $150M in Palm Beach