A Palm Beach house on the street next to Mar-a-Lago has sold for $14 million, and the sale included an option for the as-yet-unidentified buyer to get free guest privileges at President Donald Trump‘s private club, according to the sales listing. The perk at Mar-a-Lago is part of a longstanding agreement with Trump for homeowners on Woodbridge Road.
The six-bedroom house at 129 Woodbridge Road gives the new owner access to The Mar-a-Lago Club without having to pay its initiation fee, said to be as much as $1 million, thanks to an agreement Trump worked out years ago with the town. Under that agreement, the homebuyer would be required to complete an interview process with club officials and pay annual dues.
“This is the only street on the island that holds this declaration-of-use agreement with Trump, making it truly one of a kind,” said the sales listing for the house prepared by Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
The Palm Beach Daily News is the first media outlet to report the sale.
The house that just sold is the sixth to sell since early Decemeber in the security zone that closes to through-traffic when the president is in residence at Mar-a-Lago.
Just sold for a priced reported in the multiple listing service at $14 million, a Palm Beach house at 129 Woodbridge Road stands on the street that borders President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club. The six-bedroom property was marketed with an option for the buyer to get free access to the club, a perk negotiated years ago by Trump and Palm Beach officials.
Property records show the house had been owned since 2013 by a family trust in the name of the late George Buff III, who was married to the late Clara Buff. George Buff III’s father made his fortune by helping develop, in the late 1940s, the first disposable aluminum pie pan, according to published reports. Founded in 1948, Penny Plate, of Mount Laurel, New Jersey, continues to manufacture foil pans and other containers.
The house on Woodbridge Road entered the market in January with an asking price of $14.95 million.
The status of the sales listing was updated to “closed” April 9 in the multiple listing service. No deed for the sale had not been recorded as of early that morning, so the buyer’s identity isn’t yet available in public records. It’s also unclear if the sales price reported in the MLS will match the one expected to be documented with the deed at the Palm Beach County Courthouse.
The two-story house is on the north side of Woodbridge Road and the third house east of South Ocean Boulevard. Mar-a-Lago’s 17.5 acres, with Trump’s famous landmarked mansion-turned-club, is just across the street to the south.
The house and its two-story guesthouse by the pool were built in 1972, property records show. The residence has 4,810 square feet of living space, inside and out and stands on a lot of about a third of an acre.
The property is next door to one owned by Trump’s sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau, and directly across Woodbridge Road from one of the two single-family homes owned by a company for years controlled by Donald Trump. Another company linked to the president-elect owns an oceanfront house nearby.
A photo of The Mar-a-Lago Club taken several years ago shows houses on Woodbridge Road, bordering the club property at the upper left.
Elliman agents Ashley McIntosh and Kendall Corso were the listing agents. The Palm Beach Board of Realtors MLS did not identify the agent who handled tthe buyer’s side of the sale.
The property last changed hands in 2013 for a recorded $2.25 million.
The sales listing described two primary bedroom suites in the main house — an en-suite bedroom on the ground floor and another upstairs with a walk-in closet among its features.
An aerial photo looking north shows a just-listed Palm Beach house at 129 Woodbridge Road in the foreground between the two houses with the red roofs. The house is in the Estate Section neighborhood that closes to through traffic when President-elect Donald Trump is at his Mar-a-Lago Club.
With a so-called “flex” room, the layout offers “ample space for entertaining,” the sales listing said. Pocket-style glass doors lead from the living room to a patio by the pool.
The guesthouse has a ground-floor living area and, on the upper level, an en-suite bedroom. Behind the guesthouse is a gated side yard.
The Palm Beach house and guesthouse at 219 Woodbridge Road have an extensive pool patio. The property on the street next to The Mar-a-Lago Club has changed hands for $14 million, the sale price reported in the multiple listing service.
In early February, an empty lot at the corner of Woodbridge Road and South Ocean Boulevard changed hands, with town-approved house plans, for $19.5 million. Measuring two-fifths of an acre, that property at 1090 S. Ocean Blvd. was sold by a Florida limited liability company to an entity controlled by investments manager Bruce J. Richards and his wife, Avis, of New York City. Agent Margit Brandt of Premier Estate Properties handled both sides of the sale of 1090 S. Ocean Blvd.
Like the house that just changed hands, the property at 1090 S. Ocean Blvd was also marketed with the perk of guest privileges at Mar-a-Lago.
Other real estate activity in the Trump security zone near Mar-a-Lago
When Trump is at Mar-a-Lago, security officers shut down South Ocean Boulevard in the neighborhood, opening the road only to property owners or their authorized representatives or workers. The security zone runs north from the club property for seven blocks, or about half a mile, to South County Road.
Because the area is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Intracoastal Waterway on the other, the roadblock effectively divides the town in two, forcing through-traffic to detour across bridges into West Palm Beach and back.
In late March, a house at 153 Kings Road became the fourth house to sell in the Mar-a-Lago security zone. That sale, recorded at $14 million, involved a five-bedroom house that had been on and off the market since 2021, listed by several different agencies, according to the multiple listing service. The house has 6,789 square feet of living space, inside and out.
The house at 153 Kings Rod sold to a Delaware-registered limited liability company named after the property’s address and linked to Kathleen Ryan an her husband, David L. Ryan, whose professional résumé includes tenure as CEO of Connecticut-based D.L. Ryan Cos., a company identified in business records as an advertising and marketing firm. The Kings Road house was sold by Palm Beach businesswoman and retailer Lori Bernstein and her husband Michael Bernstein, CEO of MEB Finance Solutions Inc. and the managing director at Seaport Specialty Lending LLC. McIntosh and her Douglas Elliman colleague Chris Leavitt represented the sellers on Kings Road, negotiating opposite Brandt.
Built in 2009, a five-bedroom house at 153 Kings Road near President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach sold in March for a recorded $14 million.
The sale of the former Bernstein house was the second transaction to close on Kings Road within about two weeks. Via a deed recorded Feb. 26, an updated 1950s-era house at 168 Kings Road changed hands for a recorded $12 million, sold by a Delaware-registered limited liability company named after the property’s address. The buyers in that deal were oil businessman Kendall Cheatham and his wife, wealth-manager and private-equity specialist Ashley Ciaburri Cheatham. The five-bedroom house at 168 Kings Road has 5,377 total square feet on a dry lot of about two-fifths of an acre. On the seller’s side were Compass Florida agents Brooke Murphy and Kyle Blackmon, with the buyer’s side represented by Douglas Elliman agents Cara Conigilo McClure and Lisa Wilkinson.
In mid-January in the same neighborhood, private equity specialist Andrew “Andy” Unanue, whose family owns the Goya Foods empire, was linked to seller’s side of a $27.5 million deal involving a renovated eight-bedroom estate with 12,773 total square feet at 120 Clarendon Ave. The buyers on Clarendon Road were Lawrence Rolnick and Kimberly Sorrentino, a married couple who own another house in the Mar-a-Lago security zone through a limited liability company. On a lot of about three-quarters of an acre, the Clarendon Avenue house was listed by Paulette Koch and Dana Koch of the Corcoran Group, with Brandt acting for the buyers.
An expansive motor court is flanked by garages at 120 Clarendon Ave., a Palm Beach estate that just sold for a recorded $27.5 million in mid-January in the security zone that closes to through traffic when President-elect Donald Trump is in residence at his Mar-a-Lago Club.
In December, a never-lived-in, five-bedroom house developed on speculation on two-fifths of an acre at 130 Algoma Road changed hands for a recorded $14.3 million. The seller in that deal was real estate investor and developer Lee Fensterstock, who built the midblock house with 7,312 square feet of living space, inside and out. The Algoma Road estate was listed by Corcoran Group agents Dana Koch and Paulette Koch and sold to a Wyoming limited liability, MAQ Holdings LLC, which was represented in the deal by Agent Elizabeth “Missy” Savage of Brown Harris Stevens.
One other neighborhood house is listed in the “pending” category of the MLS, meaning it is under contract. That’s a four-bedroom house at 142 Via Palma with 7,633 total square feet, listed by Brandt at $18.95 million
A Palm Beach house near The Mar-a-Lago Club at 142 Via Palma is under contract, with an asking price of $18.95 million, in the security zone put in place when President-elect Donald Trump is at his private club.
Two other houses are “active” for-sale listings in the same neighborhood. An estate at 160 Clarendon Ave. is offered at $48.85 million by broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates, while a house at 1048 S. Ocean Blvd. is listed at $23.95 million by agent Elizabeth DeWoody of Compass Florida.
One other house sold recently near Mar-a-Lago but it is south of the club and not in the Trump security zone. That extensively renovated house at 1230 S. Ocean Blvd. changed hands in a deal recorded March 4 at $40 million. Julie Chrystyn Oppermann acted as trustee of the trust that bought that five-bedroom house — with 11,038 total square feet — from a company linked in property records to investments specialist David Herro and preservationist Jay Franke. Leavitt was the listing agent for 1230 S. Ocean Blvd., while Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate acted for the buyer.
dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com
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This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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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. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach home by Trump’s Mar-a-Lago sells with option to access club