On the market in Palm Beach: A 1940s-era house on Pendleton Avenue gets a bright update

While some Palm Beach house-hunters seek out never-lived-in homes or make plans to build custom residences, others love properties with history.

Take Bijon Memar of Atlanta, for example. He became smitten with Palm Beach in the early 1980s when he was 19 years old and visiting a friend. A few years ago, he sold his company, Medac, and began to pursue his passion for renovating older homes, with a focus on buying, updating and selling properties in Palm Beach.

Among his remodeling endeavors is a 1948-era property at 236 Pendleton Ave., which he bought in June 2021 and uses as his residence when he and his family are in town.

“I move around with my projects,” he says. “I have done seven projects in Palm Beach with three remaining to sell. I have always loved Palm Beach. Its integrity is important to me. I like to preserve properties here, so that in 50 to 100 years from now, people can enjoy these beautiful homes,” he says.

“It breaks my heart when people tear them down and build something new. If I can have a small impact, it would make me feel good.”

For the project on Pendleton Avenue — a two-story home with a white-brick front façade set off with touches of wrought iron — he worked with West Palm Beach architect Kristin Kellogg of Smith Kellogg Architecture and Carolyn Roy of CR Studio Interior Design in Tequesta.

He gave his design team specific instructions.

“Residents of Palm Beach have high expectations, so I said, ‘Don’t take short cuts; I want the job done right,’” Memar says. “My philosophy is to do it right, the way it should be done, and there will always be a buyer who’ll believe in that.”

With the renovation finished, the four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath home — with 4,500 square feet of living space inside and out — is listed by agents Todd and Frances Peter of Sotheby’s International Realty. The price is $14.95 million.

The house stands on a Midtown street filled with charming homes, many of them decades old. Pendleton Avenue borders The Breakers golf course on the north. The house Memar remodeled is on the south side of the street in the middle of the block.

Kellogg researched the property’s history and used it inform her renovation plan.

“The original house was the residence for (society architect) Gustaf Maas and his wife. He sold it pretty quickly and designed an addition in 1950 for the new owner, Paul P. Prudden Jr.,” Kellogg explains.

Read More: $155-million teardown: Billionaire W. Lauder razing Rush Limbaugh's old Palm Beach estate

That addition included a cabana bedroom off the garage, and above this area, bedrooms for children and household staff.

She describes her project for Memar as a gut renovation.

“But we preserved the exterior and the primary/public rooms. That’s what we try to do in historically significant properties,” she says. “Secondary spaces, like guest bedrooms or service quarters, we have more flexibility,” she says.

Central to the plan are the foyer and stair hall. To the south is the dining room, and to the west are the living room and family room, which accesses the pool deck. To the east are the kitchen and butler’s pantry; an outdoor kitchen adjoining the main residence; and the two-car garage with an adjacent cabana/bedroom suite.  

Upstairs, a sunroom is off the landing along with the main bedroom suite, which has a dressing area and bathroom. There are also two ensuite guest bedrooms, one offering views of the pool area. The landscape was designed by Claudia Visconti of SMI Landscape Architecture.

“The pool was there — we got lucky,” Kellogg says. “Also, we completely redid the mechanical, plumbing and electrical (systems).

Kellogg’s revisions to the layout included eliminating a small library and bathroom to expand and open up the kitchen and provide room for a butler’s pantry.

More: Palm Beach real estate slows in second quarter but stronger than before pandemic: Reports

The kitchen is fitted with walnut and painted cabinetry, professional-grade appliances, a custom-designed hood, honed Calacatta Caldia counters and backsplashes, and pendant lighting reclaimed from a church in the Netherlands.

Kellogg reconfigured the space in the main bedroom. And the old bedroom addition over the garage was converted into a new pool-view bedroom suite with a sitting room and a cantilevered balcony she designed to replace an old exterior staircase. The powder room off the foyer is also new.

“Shoreline Building Group, the contractors, did a fantastic job,” Kellogg says. “The level of finish is incredible and everything we wanted to preserve, like the original wood mantel (on the working fireplace in the living room), they protected.

Crews installed a new impact-resistant front door, custom made by Oliveri Millworks to replicate the original’s design. Doors and windows also were replaced with impact-resistant versions.

Kellogg vaulted many of the ceilings. Floors throughout are covered in oak, and bathrooms are finished in marble with plumbing fixtures by Samuel Heath Plumbing and Watermark Designs.

“Paired with the updates we made to reflect modern living makes. this an appealing livable house,” Kellogg adds.

*

To see more photos of 236 Pendleton Ave. in Palm Beach, click on the photo gallery at the top of this page.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach real estate: A revitalized vintage house is priced at $15M