Palm Beach real estate: Investor Jones pays $74.25M for house on Hi Mount Road

Palm Beach investor and entrepreneur Harvey Cooper Jones Jr. has paid $74.25 million for a lakefront mansion on one of the highest points in town, he confirmed to the Palm Beach Daily News.

With dramatic views of the Intracoastal Waterway, the Mediterranean-style, 1990s-era house stands on an acre at 740 Hi Mount Road and just around the corner from Jones’ home on Ridgeview Drive.

The Palm Beach Daily News was the first media outlet to report the off-market deal.

The house on Hi Mount Road was the longtime home of the late venture capitalist Bartlett “Bart” Burnap, who built it in the late 1990s with his second wife, Candida “Candy” Burnap. She resided there until recently.

“I had my eye on it for a while,” Jones said about the house.

With two main floors and a full basement, the house has six bedrooms and 15,487 square feet of living space, inside and out, property records show. The house overlooks about 160 feet of lake frontage with a dock — a selling point for Jones, who is an avid sailor with a historic vacation home he restored in Nantucket, Mass.

Because of Hi Mount Road’s unusually high elevation, houses there stand on a bluff. The land on the west side of the road slopes down steeply toward the Lake Trail walking-and-bicycling path and the Intracoastal Waterway. Some of those properties have nearly 30-foot drops from the road to the waterfront.

Jones said he also was drawn to the Hi Mount Road house because of its traditional architecture, high elevation and lushly landscaped grounds in a neighborhood he already knew well.

“The (property’s) cascading gardens are unique in Palm Beach,” he said.

A lakefront swimming pool is a focal point at the rear of the property.

Jones has owned a home in Palm Beach since 2018

Jones said he and his fiancée, Robin Gillen, plan to carry out an extensive renovation of the house. The two share the house Jones bought in 2018 at 300 Ridgeview Drive.

Jones is managing partner of Square Wave Ventures, a private venture investment firm. His résumé also includes longtime service on the board of Nvidia, which manufactures microchips used in artificial-intelligence applications. That company has seen its stock price skyrocket since 2022. Before moving to Palm Beach, Jones had deep ties to California.

Agents Todd and Frances Peter of Sotheby’s International Realty represented Jones’ interests on Hi Mount Road. Todd Peter declined to comment.

Agents Ashley McIntosh and Chris Leavitt of Douglas Elliman Real Estate worked to facilitate the seller’s side of the deal, McIntosh confirmed. She declined further comment. Jones said he bought the house as trustee of the H.C. Jones Living Trust, the vehicle he has used for all of his Palm Beach real estate transactions.

The deed shows the property was sold by Hallendale Beach attorney Morris Engelberg as trustee of the Candida Burnap Qualified Terminable Interest Property Marital Trust, as designated in Bart Burnap’s will.

Jones was buyer in big-dollar Palm Beach sale last summer

The sale near the Palm Beach Country Club marks Jones’ second big-dollar lakefront transaction within the past eight months in Palm Beach. In late July, he used his trust to buy — for a recorded $50 million — a house he later razed at 940 North Lake Way. He has that lot listed for sale at $55 million, down from $59 million, in the multiple listing service.

Jones said he had fully expected to build a custom home on the North Lake Way property — until, that is, the opportunity arose to buy the house on Hi Mount Road.

“I’ve got no regrets,” he said, adding that the North Lake Way site “is a magnificent property, and someone is going to build a house there.” He added: “I was ready to build a new one, but renovation is more suited to how I operate.”

Bart Burnap and his wife completed their custom home in 1999, property records show, four years after he bought the property for a recorded $4.35 million. The courtyard-style house, designed by New York City architect Mark Ferguson, today of Ferguson & Shamamian, took the place of an older home that had been owned in the late 1940s by the late cartoonist Robert L. Ripley of “Ripley's Believe It or Not!” fame.

Bart Burnap was a partner in a venture-capital firm. He died at 90 in 2022.

He and his wife split their time between Palm Beach and Sun Valley, Idaho.

In December, Candida Burnap paid $13 million for a six-bedroom house with 5,931 total square feet at 271 La Puerta Way in Palm Beach’s North End. She bought it from investments executive Jack E. Fockler and his wife, Cheryl. McIntosh acted on behalf of Burnap opposite agent Suzanne Frisbie of the Corcoran Group.

Burnap could not immediately be reached for comment.

Henry Kravis’ estate is down the street from just-sold Palm Beach house

The house is on the largest of five lots along Hi Mount Road, which is accessed by Ridgeview Drive from North Lake Way.

Financier Henry Kravis’ expansive estate is immediately south of those homes.

The renovated, one-story house Jones’ trust bought last summer at 940 N. Lake Way was built in the 1970s and offered wide views of the Intracoastal Waterway. It was sold by a company that had been controlled by the late wine-and-spirits businessman James V. Tigani II. With a private dock and 128 feet of lakefront, the now-vacant lot measures four-fifths of an acre.

The Peters acted on Jones’ behalf in the sale of North Lake Way. Negotiating for the buyer in that deal was Tigani’s longtime partner, Cocoran Group agent Mark Bennett, with whom he shared the home.

Jones’ trust bought his house on Ridgeview Drive for a recorded $13 million in June 2018. Todd Peter represented him in those negotiations opposite agents Toni Hollis and Gloria Moré of Waterfront Properties and Club Communities. The six-bedroom, 8,970-square-foot house is on the southwest corner of Ridgeview Drive and North Lake Way.

Jones has the Ridgeview Drive house designated as his primary residence in the Palm Beach County property-tax rolls.

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This story was updated on March 18, 2024 — the day the deed for the sale of 720 Hi Mount Road was recorded by the Palm Beach County Clerk’s office — to add more detailed information about the seller. This is a developing story. Check back for 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. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Investor buys Palm Beach estate in deal approaching $75 million