A Palm Beach house that had been in the same family since it was built in 1969 on a prominent North End street has changed hands at a land-value price of $14.23 million, according to courthouse records.
The Palm Beach Regency-style house at 157 Wells Road was sold by Daniel Drennan II as successor trustee to a trust in the name of the late Marjorie C. Cochrane, who died at 97 in September 2024. For years, she shared the four-bedroom house with her late husband, automotive executive and car dealer Edward Harding Cochrane.
The Cochranes had paid a recorded $46,500 for the ocean-block property in 1968, property records show.
The Palm Beach Daily News is the first media outlet to report the just-closed sale.
The house stands on the northeast corner of North County Road, about a half-mile north of Royal Poinciana Way. The lot measures seventh-tenths of an acre. The house has 4,437 square feet of living space, inside and out.
The house is just down the street from one with similar architecture owned by Fox News anchor Bret Baier and his wife, Amy. The Palm Beach Regency style is prevalent on that section of Wells Road.
The deed for the sale of 157 Wells Road was recorded Oct. 23 and lists the buyer as a Florida limited liability company named after the property’s address. That company is managed by West Palm Beach real estate attorney Maura Ziska, who declined to comment on the sale. Public records cloak the identity of anyone else associated with the buying entity.
Real estate agent Jack Elkins of William Raveis South Florida, who represented the buyer’s side of the deal, said a confidentiality agreement prevented him either from identifying his clients or providing specifics about the sale.
But the buyers, Elkins said, were attracted to the property because of the size of the lot and its relatively close location to shopping and dining venues in the Royal Poinciana Way commercial district and in Midtown. He said they also appreciated the beauty of Wells Road, which is famous for its trees.
And they liked having the beach just down the street as well as convenient access to the Lake Trail pedestrian-and-bicycling path along the Intracoastal Waterway, Elkins added.
“They will build a new house eventually but are very happy with their Palm Beach purchase,” he said.
The house’s architectural elements are in keeping with the Palm Beach Regency style — a crisp silhouette, a flat roof and classical-style details, including a prominent triangular pediment supported by columns on the front porch. A swimming pool is on the south side of the house.
Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate had the property listed at $18.95 million, down from its original asking price of $21.9 million when it entered the market in November. The house landed under contract Oct. 3 and the sale closed Oct. 21, the mutliple listing service shows.
Angle declined to comment about the transaction. His sales listing described the property as a “rare estate-sized lot” in the neighborhood. A buyer would have “endless possibilities” either to renovate the house or to replace it with a “Palm Beach dream home,” the listing said.
The house is on a street once known as Wells Circle and was built as one of two homes that faced each other. The other house, at 135 Wells Road, was demolished and replaced with a new one several years ago.
With ties to Illinois, Marjorie Cochrane was for many years active on Palm Beach’s charitable scene. Her husband was an executive at General Motors and founded a dealership that today is part of Schumacher Auto Group, according to his widow’s obituary.
dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com
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: Palm Beach house in the same family since the late 1960s fetches $14.34M on Wells Road
Reporting by Darrell Hofheinz, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
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