A lakeside estate on Crest Road in the the North End of Palm Beach has sold privately for a recorded $57 million, a deed recorded Feb. 18 shows.
On the sellers’ side were Lili C. and Ambrose K. Monell, who had the house homesteaded as their primary residence in the latest Palm Beach County tax rolls.
A land trust named after the property’s address was on the buyer’s end of the transaction, with Cameron Casey serving as its trustee, the deed shows. Casey is co-chair of the wealth management group at Choate, Hall & Stewart in Boston. She could not be immediately reached for comment.
Because of privacy rules governing trusts, no other information about anyone directly connected to the buying entity was immediately available in public records.
The Palm Beach Daily News is the first media outlet to report the sale.
The five-bedroom Bermuda-style residence was built in 1950 and has 7,779 square feet of living space, inside and out, property records show.
With about 145 feet of frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway, the lot measures just under nine-tenths of an acre and has a private dock.
Crest Road is a short cul-de-sac that runs parallel to the Intracoastal Waterway and connects to Plantation Road, about a third of a mile south of the Palm Beach Country Club.
Agent Kourtney Pulitzer handled the sellers’ side of the deal, she confirmed.
“I had exclusive representation of the sellers,” she said before declining any further comment.
The Monells could not immediately be reached.
Agent Gary Pohrer of Serhant confirmed he handled the buyer’s side but would not discuss the transaction or any of the parties involved.
The estate was once larger, measuring about 1½ acres and with 250 feet of lakefront. But in late 2021, the Monells sold — for a recorded $25 million in a private deal — a vacant lot immediately south of the house. The Monells had used the residence that had once stood on that lot as a guesthouse, according to sources familiar with the property.
Pohrer was the sole agent involved in the 2021 sale of the vacant lot. At the time he was affiliated with Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
Courthouse records are unclear as to how long the Monells have been associated with the house’s ownership.
The deed lists the seller of the estate as Lily Monell, who was joined on the deed by her husband. She acted as trustee of a trust in her name, with a 68.06% ownership interest, the document shows. She acted as a co-trustee with Maurizio Morello and Maia Monell, who held a 31.94% ownership interest.
Ambrose Monell has deep family ties to Palm Beach He is the grandson of the late industrialist, businessman and financier Ambrose Monell. He also is president, treasurer and director of a New York City-based charitable foundation named for his grandfather, its website shows. Ambrose Monell also serves in the same roles at The G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation.
Lili Monell also has family ties to Palm Beach. Her late father, businessman and attorney John Hayes Crichton, once had a home here.
Lakefront lots with deep water are rarely available in Palm Beach. As a result speculative developers and custom-home builders often pay premium prices for those properties, sales records show.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
This is a developing story. Check back for any 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. Support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach estate sells for $57 million on the North End lakefront
Reporting by Darrell Hofheinz, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
