Beyond the Hedges: El Vedado Road home of the late Celia Lipton Farris is under contract

The late singer and philanthropist Dame Celia Lipton Farris’ home a 1936 house at 319 El Vedado Road once owned by Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan is under contract. In need of renovation, the house had been listed at $5.5 million by the Corcoran Group.

The sale is expected to close in the next few weeks, according to Corcoran agent Paulette Koch, who sold it with her son, Dana Koch. She did not disclose the name of the buyer or the sales price.

She also wouldn’t say if the 11,278-square-foot house will be torn down to make room for something new, but it stands on one of Palm Beach’s most in-demand Estate Section streets, three streets south of the Everglades Golf Course. Corcoran’s sales listing promoted the home’s 20,000-square-foot lot to potential buyers as a “perfect (place) to build your dream home.”

The rear of the lot is on the corner of a cozy basin protected by Tarpon and Everglades islands. As a result of its position, the property offers a 20-foot-wide view of the water through the hedges that line the perimeter.

Farris, who died last March, moved into the house more than three decades ago with her late husband, Victor Farris.

Balsan, the former Duchess of Marlboro, had moved there in the late 1950s after she sold Casa Alva, her famous Manalapan mansion, in 1957.

Casa Alva, by the way, officially left the market last summer after it had been listed in the local multiple listing service at $11.75 million by owners Maura and Bill Benjamin through Illustrated Properties. But insiders say the house is likely still being marketed privately.

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On the waterfront — Remember that recent, eye-popping $850,000 short sale of 262 Park Ave., which had once been listed at $2 million more? Buyers Barbara and William Schneider can thank their Palm Beach broker, Linda R. Olsson of the Linda R. Olsson Inc. Realtor, for steering them to that deal and helping them navigate the intricacies of the short-sale maze. K2 Realty, you may recall, represented sellers Areany and Lauro Bianda.

It’s been an active season for Olsson’s boutique firm, which in December represented the buyers in their $1.1 million purchase of a vacant lot across the bridge at 2501 S. Flagler Drive on the Intracoastal Waterway. It had been listed by Tom Davis of Coldwell Banker for sellers George and Cheryl Murphy through the Murphy Living Trust. Edwin and Linda Phelps were the buyers, according to the warranty deed.

Olsson is noting a renewed interest in the custom- and spec-home market with the sale of vacant lots such as that one, as well as others on the island, including Boykin’s aforementioned listing on Everglades Island.

Late last month, for instance, Olsson was the listing broker for another waterfront property at 3014 N. Flagler Drive, which changed hands for about $1.04 million. The house had been owned by the late Jane O’Meara and was sold by her son, Peter O’Meara, property records show.

The home is ripe for renovation or could make way for new construction. Burt Minkoff of the Corcoran Group says his buyer — listed on the deed as Sandra G. Whitman, acting as trustee of the Sandra Musser Whitman Revocable Trust — acquired the property as an investment.

“Nobody was buying land, because no one wanted to build,” says Olsson. “I see an uptick in building, and that’s a good sign.”