Estate Section home sells for recorded $6.8 million

Philanthropist Carroll Petrie has sold her Estate Section home at 109 Jungle Road for about $6.8 million to a Florida limited liability company associated with Palm Beacher Margaret S. “Tina” Bilotti, according to the warranty deed recorded Thursday by the Palm Beach County Clerk’s office.

 

But the actual amount of money changing hands — $7.25 million — was higher than the recorded price, because the buyer paid the closing costs, said real estate agent Gary Little of Fite Shavell & Associates. Little had co-listed the house, known as Elephant Walk, with colleague Toni Hollis for $9.2 million.

 

Agent Jim McCann of the Corcoran Group represented the buyer, listed on the Aug. 23 deed as Casa PB LLC, an entity identified with Bilotti at her Palm Beach address. Neither Bilotti or McCann could be reached for comment.

 

Little said the buyer plans to tear down the house, which was designed in the Palm Beach Regency style by noted architect Clarence Mack and built in 1953. Renovations designed by architect John Volk were carried out in 1961, and the house was extensively remodeled and updated in 2009. The layout includes four bedrooms plus three staff rooms.

 

With a total living space of 6,681 square feet, inside and out, the house stands on an ocean-block lot measuring more than three-quarters of an acre just east of South County Road.

 

“It was a land sale — and a good one,” said Little.

 

Petrie paid $7.45 million for the house in May 2008 when she bought it from a trust named for the late class-action attorney David Berger, according to property records. She also owns a condominium on Australian Avenue that she bought in 2009, property records show.

 

Petrie, a former model, is the widow of Milton Petrie, who made his fortune from discount department stores and a sizable investment in Toys “R” Us. Since his death in 1992, his wife has continued his legacy of philanthropy through the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation, supporting a variety of charitable, health-care and educational institutions that include The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Columbia University. She has divided her time between Palm Beach and homes in New York City and the Hamptons.

 

Bilotti also owns a 1926 home on Via Del Mar that she bought in 1995 and renovated with her late husband, fragrance executive and art collector Carlo F. Bilotti, who died in 2006. Margaret Bilotti is the daughter of the late philanthropist George L. Schultz, who before his death in 1994 headed his family’s business, toiletries manufacturer Shulton Inc. of Old Spice fame, as well as the philanthropic Schultz Foundation.

 

Fite Shavell had listed the Jungle Road house for a little more than a year and had seen steady interest in the property, Little said.

 

“We saw a lot of interest in it from the very first,” Little said. “It’s a reasonably sized house.”

 

But he added that the home’s grandly scaled rooms and formal interior details limited its appeal to many house-hunters.

 

The interior features include marble fireplaces, original plaster moldings, classically styled columns and two master suites, according to the sales listing. The grounds are landscaped with formal gardens.