A Palm Beach estate that hadn’t changed hands in 14 years has sold for $25.375 million, the price recorded with the deed for 200 Clarke Ave.
Seller Valerie J. Winchester bought the house new in 2007 for $9.4 million, courthouse records show. She had the residence homesteaded as her primary home in the latest Palm Beach County tax roll.
On the buyer’s side was Francine C. Purcell, whose husband is private-equity specialist Gregory J. Purcell.
Francine Purcell bought the house as trustee of a trust in her name. The sale is the second Palm Beach real estate purchase she has been linked to this year. In April, an ownership company associated with her Hobe Sound address paid a recorded $7.975 million for the longtime home-and-office building of interior designer Scott Snyder at 209 Phipps Plaza.
Gregory J. Purcell is CEO of Chicago-based Arbor Investments, which he co-founded in 1999. With an additional office in New York City, the firm focuses exclusively on investing in food, beverage and related industries, according to its website.
The six-bedroom house that just sold on Clarke Avenue has a two-bedroom guesthouse facing the pool. In all, the buildings have 11,049 square feet of living space, inside and out. The lot measures about six-tenths of an acre on the southwest corner of North County Road.
The sale closed Friday, according to local multiple listing service.
Winchester is associated in public records with VW Management Inc. and a number of real estate companies.
With ties to Massachusetts, she bought the house about a year after the death of her real estate developer husband, Walker K. Winchester, at 79. He co-founded State Street Development Co. of Boston and built dozens of affordable housing complexes and rental buildings in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, according to his obituary. The couple had divided their time between a home on Lake Court in Palm Beach and a summer residence at Oyster Harbors in Osterville, Massachusetts, property records show.
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Broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate listed the house on Clarke Avenue at $27.9 million at the tail end of August.
Broker Linda Olsson of Linda R. Olsson Inc., Realtor, handled the buyer’s side of the sale, the MLS shows.
Olsson and Angle declined to comment, and their clients couldn’t be reached immediately.
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Olsson also represented both sides in the off-market sale linked to Purcell last spring when the landmarked building at 209 Phipps Plaza changed hands, although she declined to discuss the transaction.
In the Phipps Plaza deal, a Florida limited liability company named after the property’s address was the buyer, the deed recorded at the tail end of April shows. The company is managed by the 209 Phipps Plaza Nominee Trust, according to state business records. The document listed the buyer’s address as the Hobe Sound house owned by Francine Purcell through the same trust that just bought the home on Clarke Avenue, property records show.
Property records also show Purcell has residential ties to Winnetka, Illinois, outside Chicago.
Related sale:Purcell-linked entity buys Snyder’s landmarked office-residence in Palm Beach
Angle’s sales listing for the Clarke Avenue property mentioned the main house’s well-scaled rooms with French doors throughout. The layout includes a ground-floor guest suite, a formal dining room, a library, multiple fireplaces and an elevator. The eat-in kitchen has a work island, “top-of-the-line” appliances, a breakfast area and a butler’s pantry.
The second floor “owner’s wing” has a sitting room, a “morning bar,” dual bathrooms, two walk-in closets and a terrace.
The listing described the pool area as a “serene backyard oasis” with covered loggias and a built-in grill.
Other features of the property include a full-house generator, an updated security system and a three-car garage.
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Winchester bought the house from a company controlled by Palm Beach real estate developer Suzanne Frisbie, who handled both sides of the 2007 sale in her role as an agent at the Corcoran Group, records show. Frisbie and her family developed the house on speculation, according to published reports. The contractor was Benitz Building.
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This story was updated Nov. 17, 2021 — the day the deed was recorded for the sale of 200 Clarke Ave. — to include information about the buyer. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.