Gulf Stream: Tiny coastal town in Palm Beach County has seen monstrous home sales of late

Many people in Palm Beach County may have heard of Gulf Stream, but few likely know where it is or what it's about.

But a recent surge in supersize home sales has put the tiny coastal town between Boynton Beach and Delray Beach in the spotlight.

Lemon Hill manor sells for more than twice the previous purchase price

A renowned and lightly renovated manor designed by Palm Beach society architect Marion Sims Wyeth sold for more than double the previous purchase price inked just four years ago in the increasingly popular and costly coastal town of Gulf Stream.

Dubbed Lemon Hill for its creamy yellow façade, the 83-year-old Georgian-style home fetched $16.5 million at its closing Aug. 23. That’s $1.4 million below the May list price but a 132% leap from the $7.11 million Stephen Benjamin paid for it in 2018.

READ MORE ABOUT THAT SALE HERE

Before Lemon Hill, home sales in Gulf Stream were for $27.5M and $33M

Recently, a titan in the food industry paid the second-highest price on record for a home in Gulf Stream: $27.5 million.

The deed was signed June 1 by James Sausville, CEO of his family’s 123-year-old New Jersey-based company that helps keep bagels fresh, tortillas soft and chocolate icing extra fudgy.

READ MORE ABOUT THAT SALE HERE: Town of Gulf Stream sees second-highest home sale with $27.5 million oceanfront mansion

The per-square-foot price of the house of $4,496 was the highest on record in Gulf Stream, according to real estate agents. The overall price of $27.5 million was runner-up to a $33 million sale in March on the estate next door to Sausville’s new home.

In addition to the $33 million sale, there was a $26.7 million deal that also closed in March. A 1926 oceanfront estate designed by society architect Howard Major is on the market for $35 million.

►Read more about the recent sales in Gulf Stream and all over Palm Beach County and support local journalism by getting a digital subscription to The Palm Beach Post. Sign up here. 

Gulf Stream boasts historic and scenic highway dotted with Australian Pines

Gulf Stream is a slender two-mile-long reach of coast with about 1,000 residents and two golf courses. Its stretch of A1A has the only remaining Australian Pine canopy from Jacksonville to Miami and is designated a historic and scenic highway.

Gulf Stream began as a scrubby pinch of land for polo and golf with the Gulf Stream Golf Club established in 1924 and the Gulf Stream Polo Club launching matches in 1927. Eventually, the polo fields were sold for residential development.

The town's logo, in fact, includes a polo player and a golfer.

Read more: Spat over wine bar simmers between former U.S. Marine and Palm Beach billionaire

Summer guide: What's hot in real estate right now in Palm Beach County

According to the town's website, "in 1922, Bessemer Properties, a real estate venture controlled by the family of Henry Phipps, Jr. (co-founder with Andrew Carnegie of the company that became U.S. Steel) began to accumulate parcels of land on both sides of the intracoastal canal for future development. Friends and business associates of the Phipps family in Palm Beach saw the roughly 500 virgin acres of property as an ideal location for a golf course and polo fields, surrounded by seasonal residences.

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The Gulfstream Polo Club opened along the ocean in 1923 and club members overcame obstacles such as World War II and two Florida real estate booms to survive.

Gulfstream Polo shut down during WWII as stables were used by military

The club was temporarily shut down during the war when its oceanfront stables were leased by the military for patrol horses along the beach to protect against foreign invasion.

The polo games returned in 1946, with top polo players from the top clubs in New York, Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit coming to play each winter.

►The history of the Gulf Stream Polo Club

Because of skyrocketing property values in the 1960s, the Phipps family sold the oceanfront property that had been leased to Gulfstream Polo. The club eventually moved to western Lake Worth in 1965. It closed in May 2016.

While Gulfstream players weren’t as talented as the pro polo players at the nearby International Polo Club in Wellington, the place enjoyed a more low-key style and atmosphere.

Also: Celebrated Marion Sims Wyeth-designed estate south of Palm Beach listed for $17.9 million

“We’re the last remaining club of its kind in the country,” club president Randy Aversano said when the club called it quits in 2016.

“This is truly a club for members who join for fun,” Aversano said.

►Read more about the recent home sales in Palm Beach County and support local journalism by getting a digital subscription to The Palm Beach Post. Sign up here.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Gulf Stream has recently had three major home sales in the millions.