Palm Beach couple behind $29.25M buy of stately house a few streets north of Mar-a-Lago

A house built near the sea in 1958 with stately architecture has changed hands for $29.25 million in Palm Beach’s famous Estate Section, the Palm Beach Daily News has confirmed.

Payday-lending mogul W. Allan Jones is on the buyer's side of the sale at 120 Via Del Lago. Married to Janie Jones, he has bought and sold other Palm Beach through the same limited liability company, Jones Lakeland LLC.

The Palm Beach Daily News is the first media outlet to report the transaction.

The estate had been the home of the late retired Chicago industrialist Harold B. Smith Jr., who died at 89 in October 2022 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Smith had bought his Palm Beach estate in May 2004 for $7.3 million, property records show.

With Regency-influenced architecture, the two-story house was designed by the late society architect Marion Sims Wyeth, whose prolific work is found throughout Palm Beach.

The main house, with seven bedrooms, is complemented by a separate guesthouse and a cabana by the 40-by-20-foot pool.

The house stretches nearly the 255-foot width of its lot, which measures about nine-tenths of an acre and is one house west of South Ocean Boulevard. The estate is on the fifth street north of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

The buildings have 13,165 total square feet, of which 11,907 square feet are air-conditioned, according to the sales listing.

Landscape architect Nievera Williams Design designed the grounds with detailed gardens, a rear lawn and patio spaces. The plantings include mature seagrape shrubs and coconut palms.

Buyers of Palm Beach estate were drawn by 'beautiful architecture,' detailed landscape

The sales listing prepared by agent Gary Pohrer of Douglas Elliman Real Estate described the house as one of Wyeth’s “classic Palm Beach masterpieces” with architecture that “exudes true precision in its design.”

Agent Suzanne Frisbie of the Corcoran Group represented the Joneses’ interests in the deal. In a statement to the Palm Beach Daily News, she said the Joneses authorized her to say they were “attracted to the beautiful architecture by one of Palm Beach’s beloved architect, Marion Sims Wyeth, and to the landscape architecture by Mario Nievera’s team.”

The buyers were also especially “drawn by the home’s ability to host their whole family,” Frisbie’s statement said. “It started with a desire for a larger home and a minimum of a four-car garage. Once they saw this home and the beautiful grounds, they were hooked.”

W. Allan Jones founded Cleveland, Tennessee-based Check Into Cash Inc., one of the country's largest payday-lending companies. His other companies include Creditcorp and Jones Management Services.

Since late 2021, the Joneses have owned, through Jones Lakeland LLC, a Palm Beach townhouse at 236 Bradley Place. Fribsie has that three-bedroom townhouse, No. 7 in the Villa Plati development, listed for sale with a price of just under $9 million.

Jones Lakeland LLC bought the townhouse after executing a sizable flip in 2021 of Tarpon Cove — a lakeside estate at 320 Island Road — during the heyday of the real estate boom sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, which sent home values soaring in Palm Beach.

The Jones-controlled ownership entity bought Tarpon Cove for a recorded $26.15 million in January 2021 and then sold the property a few months later for about $41.71 million. The difference totaled $15.56 million.

Before they bought Tarpon Cove, the Joneses had a Palm Beach vacation home at 236 Via Linda, a lakeside estate that Jones Lakeland LLC has purchased in 2013.

House on Via Del Lago in Palm Beach has grandly scaled rooms

The house on Via Del Lago was previously owned by Northern Trust Co., which acted as trustee of a trust in Smith's name, property records show.

Smith was the senior member of a leading Chicago manufacturing and banking family. Smith spent nearly 70 years in operational, managerial and executive roles at Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW), a company founded by his great grandfather, Byron L. Smith. Harold Smith’s career include serving as president, chief operating officer and vice chairman of the company.

He also was a director of the Northern Trust Co., which his great grandfather also founded.

Smith was married twice, first to the late Frederica Herriman Pederson, the mother of their four daughters. His second wife was the late Denise Grace Smith.

The sale closed March 15, according to the multiple listing service, but no deed for the transaction had been recorded as of the early morning on March 28. It’s unclear whether the $$29.25 million sale price reported in the MLS will match the one expected to be documented at the Palm Beach County courthouse.

Pohrer’s listing for the house on Via Del Lago mentioned the home’s grandly scaled living spaces, indoors and out. The formal dining room overlooks the gardens and opens to a loggia, an arrangement suited for entertaining, the listing says.

Photos of the interior show an expansive living room with a fireplace and a bank of French doors — with transoms above — to capture views of a patio, gardens and a fountain. French doors in the living room also open to the loggia.

A short hall from the front door leads to a two-story stair hall, anchored by a gracefully curved staircase with an elaborate metalwork banister. There’s also an elevator.

Jones family took part in four Palm Beach sales since early 2021

Frisbie has represented the Joneses in all their recent Palm Beach transactions.

When Jones Lakeland LLC bought the Villa Plati townhouse for a recorded $6.25 million in December 2021, Frisbie negotiated opposite the seller, Palm Beach real agent Ashley Copeland, and her husband, wealth management adviser Julian I. Stoopler.

In the January 2021 sale of Tarpon Cove, the seller was James Berwind, who built the house as a custom home and was represented by agent Cristina Condon of Sotheby's International Realty. When Tarpon Cove changed hands in May 2021, the buyer — a Delaware-registered limited liability company, PB Island Dreams LLC — was represented by Corcoran Group agents Dana Koch and Paulette Koch. At the time of both sales, Frisbie was affiliated with Premier Estate Properties.

Negotiating opposite Frisbie in the January 2021 sale of 235 Via Linda was Premier Estate Properties agent Rosalind Clarke, who acted on behalf of the buyer, a trust.

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This is a developing story. Check back for any updates.

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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.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach couple behind $29.25M buy of stately house near Mar-a-Lago