Palm Beach home in security zone by Trump’s Mar-a-Lago lists at $18.9M
The house at 145 Clarendon Ave. was built in 1951 and is ripe for renovation, according to a new sales listing. A buyer could also raze the house and replace it with a new one.
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- Priced at $18.9 million, the house 145 Clarendon Ave. is part of the security zone that closes to through-traffic when President Trump visits his Mar-a-Lago Club.
- The house on Clarendon Avenue is among three properties listed for sale in the Mar-a-Lago security zone.
- The house has a living room with pecky-cypress paneling; a formal dining room; and a family room with floor-to-ceiling windows and glass doors.
The Mar-a-Lago Club may be closed for the summer, but Palm Beach’s residential real estate market is still open for business in the neighborhood just north of President Donald Trump’s famous business and residence.
An $18.9 million listing for a house at 145 Clarendon Ave. entered the multiple listing service this week in the security zone that closes to through-traffic when the president visits Mar-a-Lago.
Built in 1951 and ripe for renovation — or even demolition — on a half-acre lot, the one-story house on Clarendon Avenue has five bedrooms and 5,276 square feet of living space, inside and out. The house is the fourth one east of the Intracoastal Waterway and stands near the intersection of South County Road and South Ocean Boulevard. Clarendon Avenue is the northernmost street in the security-zone neighborhood, which extends seven blocks north of Mar-a-Lago.
Since the start of the year, the Estate Section neighborhood has seen five houses — plus a vacant lot with town-approved house plans — change hands in the security zone at prices ranging from $14 million to $27.5 million. The house that just entered the market is among four in the neighborhood listed for sale in the MLS.
The Bermuda-style house that just entered the market at 145 Clarendon Ave. last changed hands for a recorded $17 million in June 2022. The buyer was fashion designer Catherine H. Prevost, who at the time had an eponymous Palm Beach boutique — opened in late 2021 but since closed — on Worth Avenue. Less than a month after Prevost bought the house, she deeded it to 145 Clarendon PB LLC, a limited liability company managed by West Palm Beach attorney A. Max Zaretsky, public records show.
Prevost, who built her fashion career in London, still sells apparel through her website, CatherinePrevost.com.
Agent Margit Brandt of Premier Estate Properties, who has been involved in the majority of the security-zone sales, holds the new listing. Brandt declined to comment for this story, but her sales description says the house offers an “unparalleled opportunity to renovate and reimagine this island residence.”
A buyer also could demolish the house and replace it with something new.
With a three-car garage, the house has a walled-in garden area accessed from several rooms and centered on the swimming pool. The layout also includes a living room with pecky-cypress paneling and a tray ceiling; a formal dining room; and a family room with floor-to-ceiling windows and glass doors.
Brandt’s listing spotlights the home’s “soaring ceilings,” wood floors and well-proportioned rooms.
“The expansive kitchen and butler’s pantry offer the perfect canvas for customization,” says the listing, which also mentions a new 60-inch gas range and “an east-facing patio ideal for morning coffee or alfresco dining.”
The property backs up to Via Serena, which acts as a service road for houses on the north side of Clarendon Avenue. Owners on Clarendon also have access to a neighborhood patio on the beach on the opposite side of South Ocean Boulevard.
When the house sold in 2022, attorney Christopher Uzpen signed the deed on behalf of the seller, a limited liability company named after the property’s address. Uzpen is affiliated with the Greenwich, Connecticut investments firm Interactive Brokers Group, which was founded by Palm Beach billionaire Thomas Peterffy.
The listing agent in the 2022 sale was Lara A. Pope of Sotheby’s International Realty, who negotiated opposite agent Ashley Copeland of Brown Harris Stevens.
The house had sold previously via a deed recorded in 2021 at $10.5 million. In that off-market sale, the seller was Sotheby’s International Realty agent Victoria “Tori” Baker, who owned the property through a trust.
Society architect Marion Sims Wyeth designed the house for Vaughn Spaulding of Lake Forest, Illinois, and it was first sold in 1978 by the estate of Florence C. Spaulding, records show.
One of the other MLS-listed houses in the Mar-a-Lago security zone is just down the street at 160 Clarendon Ave., priced at $48.85 million by broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates.
Agent Elizabeth DeWoody of Compass Florida holds another listing in the neighborhood — a house at 1045 S. Ocean Blvd., which is asking $23.95 million.
And Brandt has a house at 112 Algoma Road in the security zone listed at $12.5 million.
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, guests or workers.
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.
To see more photos of the house at 145 Clarendon Ave., click on on the gallery within the story.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
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 [email protected], call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz.
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