The real estate bar has been raised in Northeast Florida with the record sale price of $22 million for an oceanfront home in Ponte Vedra Beach.
Property at 349 Ponte Vedra Blvd., about 2 miles south of the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club, sold Jan. 31 in a cash transaction.
Christopher and Letitia Aitken of Jacksonville Beach sold the home furnished to Michael Dreyer, as trustee of 349PVB Trust Agreement.
The buyer asked to remain anonymous, said Christopher Aitken.
The Aitkens bought the property in 2013 for $3.15 million. A 50-year-old house was torn down and a new one was built in 2017.
Aitken said Feb. 1 they spared no expense but declined to say how much it cost to build.
In 2018, the St. Johns County Property Appraiser valued the house at $3,153,098 and the land at $2,875,000.
The house took three years to engineer, design, permit and build, Aitken said.
The 8,293-square-foot structure sits on 0.37 acre. It has five bedrooms and eight baths.
There is a large pool and spa, and a water feature at the front entrance. It has two two-car garages. The house is fully computerized. There is a dune walkover.
It has four balconies, two open patios and two lanais.
The house includes a 700-bottle, commercial-grade wine cellar, solid core Italian doors and custom hardware, electric shades throughout, a 100-inch TV and surround sound in the media room, a 96-inch linear vented gas fireplace and an office facing the ocean.
“We thought we would never get our money out of it when we sold but we ultimately did,” Aitken said.
Aitken is the managing director at UBS and Sanctuary Private Wealth in Ponte Vedra Beach.
With their five children out of the house, it was just too big for just the two of them, he said. They wanted to downsize.
They did not list the home. Instead, they spoke with a friend, Kim Martin-Fisher of Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
“We told her that we didn’t want to list it. However, if someone came along who appreciated the house we might consider selling,” he said.
Jennifer Martin Faulkner also represented the sellers. Sharon Qualls of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices represented the buyer.
The architect was Cronk Duch Architecture and Planning. The builder was Coastal Construction and Consulting. Julie Schulte of Schulte Design Associates created the interior furnishing scheme.
Aitken retained Coastal Construction and Consulting for regular maintenance on the house.
“With an oceanfront home you have to stay on top of it,” he said.
“We had it appraised recently and we were told that it shows like a 2-year-old house.”
The Wall Street Journal will be featuring the sale in an upcoming issue, according to Douglas Elliman Real Estate.