Company controlled by billionaire lists, at $35M, an updated investment home in Palm Beach

A company controlled by billionaire Robert F. Smith and his wife, Hope, has listed for sale — at $35 million — an updated 1980s-era Palm Beach house that the couple’s ownership entity bought a year ago for $23 million.

The house at 150 El Vedado Road was purchased as a real estate investment property, the Smiths’ family office confirmed in December 2022 when a Delaware-registered limited liability company named Hope Enterprises RE LLC bought the Estate Section property.

Robert Smith, who is regularly identified in media reports as the wealthiest Black American, and his wife have a sizable seaside estate in Seminole Landing near North Palm Beach, which at one point was the home of Elin Nordegren, ex-wife of golf legend Tiger Woods.

Robert Smith is principal founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, which invests in software companies. His net worth is estimated by Forbes at $9.2 billion, up from $8 billion when Hope Enterprises RE LLC bought the house on El Vedado Road a year ago.

The Palm Beach Regency-style house has seven bedrooms, two of which have been re-purposed for use as a gym and a den, according to the sales description that entered the Palm Beach Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service Monday.

Built in 1986, the house has 6,335 square feet of living space, inside and out, property records show. The ocean-block lot measures more than a half-acre on the southeast corner of South County Road. The property lies about a mile north of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.

HOUSE CHANGED HANDS IN LATE 2022: Billionaire Robert F. Smith’s company pays $23M for Palm Beach house, a 190% jump in value since 2021

Agent Kristina Anderson McPherson of Compass Florida holds the listing but declined to discuss the house or her clients.

Building records show renovations were begun before the house sold in 2022. The work has since been completed and the estate appears to be in pristine condition, photographs show.

McPherson’s sales listing describes the house as “completely reimagined.”

With a “versatile floor plan,” the house has “high ceilings, clean lines and an abundance of natural light streaming through the large windows,” the listing says.

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Windows and glass doors offer views of the backyard’s pool and whirlpool spa set amid lush landscaping, offering a “private, serene retreat for relaxation and entertainment,” according to the listing.

The Smiths’ ownership company bought the property from a Delaware company affiliated with another family named Smith — Palm Beach resident and real estate investor Barbara Stovall Smith and her financier husband, Randall Smith. The latter couple used an ownership entity to buy the house in January 2021 for a recorded $7.88 million.

Over the past decade, companies linked to Randall and Barbara Smith have bought and sold multiple Palm Beach investment properties. Randall Smith co-founded the hedge fund Alden Global Capital and has invested heavily in newspapers and media companies through his Digital First Media and New Media Group.

The house just listed on El Vedado Road was built for its first owner, the late Donna Shalek, construction records show. It was developed by the late Palm Beach developer Robert Gottfried in his signature Palm Beach Regency style, featuring a flat roof and neoclassical elements that include a triangular pediment over the front door.

In the 2022 sale, Douglas Elliman Real Estate agent Gary Pohrer handled the sellers’ side of the transaction, negotiating opposite McPherson.

Real estate observers say the so-called “El” streets — including El Vedado Road and neighboring El Brillo Way and El Bravo Way — are among the Estate Section’s most in-demand streets, thanks to their historic provenance, their proximity to shopping and dining on Worth Avenue and the high quality of the houses there.

Robert Smith made news in 2019 when he said during a commencement speech he would pay the college debt for the Class of 2019 at private Morehouse College, a traditionally Black college in Atlanta. In 2020, he made headlines of a different sort when he entered a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and the IRS to pay $139 million for his role in a tax-fraud case, according to media reports.

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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_Hofhe

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Billionaire lists, at $35M, an updated investment house in Palm Beach