most expensive spec home

The decade: Frank McKinney's 'most expensive spec home' made real-estate history

By AUGUSTUS MAYHEW
Special to the Daily News

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Ten years ago, Frank "King of the Modern Castle" McKinney invited 500 guests for the splashy (somewhere between Broadway and Vegas) opening of his latest magnum opus, 1370 S. Ocean Blvd., a 3-acre oceanfront 72-room Manalapan estate.

Months earlier, McKinney purchased the property from National Enquirer heiress Lois Pope for $15 million.

Following an extensive $6 million remodel, according to McKinney, the house was priced at $30 million and billed as "the most expensive spec home in the world."



Several months later, the seven-bedroom mansion featuring two saltwater aquariums and an eight-car garage sold to the Binky Revocable Trust for $27.5 million, reportedly to software entrepreneur Daniel Gittleman, according to court documents.

During the summer of 2004, McKinney's company, Venture Concepts International Inc., took back the property's title for $19 million. Gittleman and his wife, Patricia, moved to Stone Creek Ranch west of Delray Beach.

Two months later, another sale of the property was recorded. This time, McKinney's company sold the 3-acre estate for $22.4 million to Tampa residents Peter S. and Tamara A. Lowe, motivational speakers who head Success Events International.

Last June there was a recorded sale for $22,458,456 to Germantown-Seneca Joint Venture; it was an amount almost equal to the existing Bank America liens on the property.

Currently, the house has an appraised market value of $20.2 million, according to Palm Beach County Property Appraiser's Office records.

Recently, 1370 S. Ocean Blvd. was placed back on the market by Sotheby's International Realty for $16.9 million; it is now described as a "Palatial Ocean to Intracoastal Compound."

Thus, the house's next chapter remains unwritten, making the previous decade's tale of how one house with six owners made for more than $106 million in recorded sales part of real estate history.

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source: http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/biz/content/business/2009/12/26/sunClemmer_Decade.html
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