It’s not every day that Palm Beach gets a new $185-million residential listing.
But that’s just what happened, when an expansive oceanfront compound owned by Joan “Joanie” Goodman, widow of real estate developer Murray H. Goodman, vaulted onto the market Nov. 7 with the attention-grabbing asking price.
Goodman and her late husband, who died in December at age 99, built the North End house at 911 N. Ocean Blvd. in the mid-1970s as a custom home on land that was once part of a storied estate.
With direct beachfront, the estate encompasses about 2.5 acres with around 250 feet of shoreline. It is the third property north of the point where the coastal road makes a sharp turn around the northeastern corner of the Palm Beach Country Club’s golf course.
In all, there are 12 bedrooms and 23,956 of living space, inside and out, the sales listing shows. Of that measurement, 17,572 square feet are under air conditioning.
Among the property’s unusual features is a decorative balustraded wall designed by noted society architect Addison Mizner for long-since-demolished Playa Riente, one of the island’s most elaborate estates of the 1920s.
Illustrated Properties agent Marley Goodman Overman confirmed she is co-listing the property for her mother, who plans to downsize in Palm Beach. Gary Pohrer of Serhant is the co-listing agent.
“It’s a true legacy estate — a very special piece of property,” Overman told the Palm Beach Daily News. “This is really an Old World part of Palm Beach.”
As head of The Goodman Co., Overman’s father focused his career on developing commercial buildings and shopping centers, including The Esplanade on Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue and the Phillips Point mixed-use office building in downtown West Palm Beach. The Goodmans had ties to Allentown, Pennsylvania, before they moved to Palm Beach in the 1970s.
Murray Goodman paid a recorded $350,000 for the land at 911 N. Ocean Blvd. in 1974, property records show.
Overman said her father was known for his real estate acumen, which extended beyond the commercial sector.
“This property just shows his eye for trophy properties,” said Overman, who grew up at the estate with her four siblings.
She noted that a direct-oceanfront parcel of this size in Palm Beach “is very rare.”
The house and its seawall have been well-maintained, Overman added. But nothing would prevent a buyer from razing it and replacing it with a new one.
The sales listing mentions that the estate “offers commanding views of the Atlantic and an exceptional sense of privacy.”
The main residence is complemented by a guest house. Other amenities mentioned in the sales listing include formal gardens, a tennis court and a “resort-style” pool.
The listing was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The land was once the site of La Guardiola, a seaside mansion built by Mizner in 1923 for the late oilman Joshua Cosden. In 1926, that house became home to the late Anna Dodge Dillman, who renamed it Playa Riente and lived there for three decades. She added an elaborate Mizner-designed cloister to the mansion.
Playa Riente featured a grandly scaled living room and music room, along with “a myriad of loggias, cloisters, sun decks, patios and terraces,” in the words of Palm Beach architectural historian Augustus Mayhew.
Playa Riente was razed in the late 1950s and the land subdivided into residential lots. But the original mansion’s balustraded wall has remained as a familiar landmark to drivers on North Ocean Boulevard, as has its distinctive double staircase that leads from the rear lawn down to the beach.
Even priced at $185 million, the Goodman estate is not the most expensive property listed for sale in Palm Beach. It trails a vacant ocean-to-lake parcel of about 2 acres across town and priced at $200 million at 1980 S. Ocean Blvd. That price includes concept architectural plans for a mansion and guesthouse, but those buildings have not been presented to the town’s powerful Architectural Commission for approval.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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. Subscribe today to support our journalism.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Goodman estate lists for $185 million on Palm Beach’s North End beachfront
Reporting by Darrell Hofheinz, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
