Is Jon Bon Jovi linked to the recent purchase of a Palm Beach house on the North End’s Orange Grove Road, just down the street from the rocker’s oceanfront mansion?
Nothing’s definitive, because no one involved is talking about the deal, which recorded at $9.25 million. But the paperwork trail suggests Bon Jovi could be behind the purchase of the four-bedroom house at 244 Orange Grove Road.
After all, it’s not unusual for Palm Beach homeowners to buy smaller houses near their estates, often to accommodate guests, provide quarters for staff or even serve as private getaways in their own right.
Orange Grove Road intersects with North Ocean Boulevard directly in front the seaside estate Bon Jovi shares with his wife, Dorothea Hurley. The house on Orange Grove is the fifth one west of their mansion.
In the deal that closed May 13, the renovated 1950s-era house on Orange Grove was bought by a limited liability company managed by accountant Charles Sussman, records show. Sussman founded the Nashville accounting firm Sussman & Associates, which specializes in serving clients in the entertainment industry. It offers services dealing with international business management, royalties and tax planning, according to its website.
Sussman has been involved with other Palm Beach real estate purchases involving Bon Jovi. And he and his company are credited on at least two of the Bon Jovi’s albums for providing business-management services to the rock star and his band.
Sussman also manages the limited liability company that Bon Jovi used, in 2020, to buy his oceanfront estate at 1075 N. Ocean Blvd. for a recorded $43 million. That company’s name — 1075 North Ocean LLC — is structured similarly to 244 Orange Grove Road LLC, which just bought the house on Orange Grove Road.
Sussman also managed the company that Bon Jovi used to buy his first property in Palm Beach in 2018 — at 230 N. Ocean Blvd. — through a company named at the time 230 North Ocean LLC.
In the two purchases on North Ocean Boulevard, Bon Jovi’s interests were represented by broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate, who has always declined to discuss those deals or his clients with the Palm Beach Daily News.
Angle also represented the buyer in the sale on Orange Grove Road, according to the multiple listing service. The deed recorded May 14.
Angle decined to comment, and Sussman couldn’t be reached.
The listing broker in the Orange Grove deal was Linda Olsson of Linda R. Olsson Inc. She also declined to dicuss the transaction.
The house had been on and off the market since July 2022, when it entered the multiple listing service with an asking price of $12.75 million. The property saw several price reductions before the price settled at $10. 175 million.
Built in 1952, the Bermuda Colonial-style house on Orange Grove Road has 3,955 square feet of living space, inside and out. It occupies a quarter-acre lot, 10 streets north of the Palm Beach Country Club.
The seller was Dr. Joseph J. Ceravolo Jr., a Palm Beach Gardens periodontist who inherited the home from his late parents, Dorothy and Joseph James Ceravolo Sr., who both died in 2021.
Ceravolo Jr. spent his teenage years in the house after his family moved there in the early 1970s, he told the Palm Beach Daily News in a 2022 article about the house.
Ceravolo oversaw an extensive renovation of the house, working with designer Michael Perry of MP Design & Architecture and Brent Yohe of Yohe’s Lawn Care and Landscape. Aqua Building Group was the contractor.
“We added on about 1,000 square feet, which included the entire master bedroom suite,” Ceravolo told the Palm Beach Daily News in 2022.
“My thought process was to make the house more of an open environment with a chef’s kitchen and a large master suite with a bedroom-sized walk-in closet. And now, there are two guest bedrooms and an office,” Ceravolo said in 2022.
The great room, the main bedroom and a guest suite access the pool, patio and gardens. Interior details include vaulted ceilings, hardwood floors and built-in cabinetry.
Bon Jovi’s oceanfront estate is much larger, with seven bedrooms and 13,035 total square feet, property records show. The lot measures about three-fifths of an acre and faces about 120 feet of direct beachfront.
A New Jersey native, Bon Jovi is the lead singer for his eponymous rock band, Bon Jovi, which in 2018 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band came to the forefront in the 1980s and has since sold more than 130 million albums worldwide, making it one of the best-selling American groups of all time, according to Billboard News. The band’s hits include “Living on a Prayer,” “Bad Medicine” and “Wanted Dead or Alive.”
His most recent hit single, 2024’s “Now or Never,” is a collaboration with Pitbull based on Bon Jovi’s 2000 song “It’s My Life.”
When Bon Jovi’s company bought the oceanfront estate from retired communications entrepreneur Jeffrey A. Marcus and his wife, Nicola, in July 2020, Angle handled both sides of the sale. That deal closed simultaneously with the $19.85-million sale of the custom home the rocker and his wife had built on an oceanfront lot at 230 N. Ocean Blvd. In the latter sale, Angle handled the sellers’ side opposite Douglas Elliman Real Estate agents Chris Leavitt and Ashley McIntosh, who represented the buyer — a trust affiliated with mortgage lender Rob Posner and his wife, Zina.
Bon Jovi’s company had paid a recorded $10 million for the property at 230 N. Ocean Blvd. — with a since-razed house — in March 2018. In that sale, Angle also represented Bon Jovi’s interests, negotiating opposite listing broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates.
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. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Is rocker Jon Bon Jovi linked to a house purchase near his seaside mansion in Palm Beach?
Reporting by Darrell Hofheinz, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
