Designer-renovated 1950s-era house fetches $13.9 million on North End of Palm Beach
After a sluggish start to the New Year, the North End of Palm Beach has been abuzz over the past several weeks with real estate activity, including a sale just recorded at $13.9 million for an extensively renovated house built in the late 1950s at 272 Via Marila.
Melissa Wight was the buyer, according to the deed recorded Wednesday. She has a home in the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club in Boca Raton, the document shows.
On the seller’s side of the Via Marila deal was a trust named after the property’s address, for which Palm Beach real estate attorney Guy Rabideau serves as trustee. He declined to comment about the sale, and because of rules governing trusts, no other information about anyone associated with the trust was available in public records.
The seller bought the already-renovated 1959 house in May 2021 for a $11.35 million, property records show. The house just changed hands for $2.55 million more than the price recorded in that deal.
The mid-century modern-style house has five bedrooms and 6,333 square feet of living space, inside and out. It stands on a lot of about two-fifths of an acre, several streets north of the Palm Beach Country Club and a few houses east of North Lake Way.
In the 2021 deal, the 272 Via Marila Trust bought the house from investments adviser Nicholas K. Rafferty and his wife, Palm Beach interior decorator Caroline Rafferty, who had overseen a major renovation of the property.
Among its features, the house has a well-equipped kitchen — described in the most recent sales listing as “the heart of the home” — with an oversize work island and top-of-the-line appliances. The kitchen overlooks an outdoor dining space near the pool.
The layout also includes a library and a wet bar. The master bedroom has its own sitting room and two closets. A second-floor space has been used as a gym but could double as a guest bedroom, according to the sales listing.
In the 2021 sale, Douglas Elliman Real Estate agents Ashley McIntosh and Chris Leavitt represented the trust that bought the house from the Raffertys. The same agents returned to list the property for sale last June.
Broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate acted on behalf of the buyer in the most recent sale. He knew the house well, having represented the Raffertys when they sold it nearly three years ago.
Melissa Wight and Angle could not be reached for comment about the sale on Via Marila.
The latest Palm Beach County tax rolls show Wight and her husband, Russell B. Wight Jr., have their Boca Raton house homesteaded as their primary residence. He is a businessman and real estate entrepreneur with ties to New Jersey, according to a brief biographical sketch on the website for The Wight Foundation, a Newark-based charitable organization.
The house on Via Marila originally carried a price of $19.5 million, which dropped to $16.45 million in October before settling at $15.45 million in January, the multiple listing service shows.
The property landed under contract on Feb. 26, and the deal closed less than two weeks later, according to the MLS.
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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 house sells for $13.9M, a jump of $2.55M since 2021
