Palm Beach house priced at $59.5 million is in an area where lakeside listings are rare

Darrell Hofheinz, Palm Beach Daily News
Updated ·4 min read

Lakeside houses seldom enter the market on the stretch of Palm Beach real estate that runs from the Flagler Memorial Bridge south to the Royal Park Bridge in Midtown. But there's a good reason listings there are rare.

Only a dozen single-family estates in that area front the Intracoastal Waterway — and one of them just became available with a suitably rare price tag of $59.5 million.

Built in 1987, the house at 315 Chapel Hill Road is at the end of a short cul-de-sac that inclines toward the lake from Cocoanut Row and borders the grounds of the Royal Poinciana Chapel. The proximity to the church and its gardens provides the house’s family room with a dramatic view of the chapel’s grand kapok tree, a familiar sight to pedestrians on the Lake Trail.

Just listed at $59.5 million, a lakefront estate at 315 Chapel Hill Road in Palm Beach includes the main house at the left and the guesthouse at the right. The famous kapok tree on the grounds of the Royal Poinciana Chapel can be seen at the far left.
Just listed at $59.5 million, a lakefront estate at 315 Chapel Hill Road in Palm Beach includes the main house at the left and the guesthouse at the right. The famous kapok tree on the grounds of the Royal Poinciana Chapel can be seen at the far left.

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Facing about 200 feet of lakefront, the rear of the house and its adjacent guesthouse look out to the walking path and downtown West Palm Beach across the water. The double lot measures four-fifths of an acre and includes a narrow strip of land on the west side of the Lake Trail.

With Palm Beach Regency-style architecture, the five-bedroom house and three-bedroom guesthouse have a combined 6,438 square feet of living space, inside and out.

The house was the longtime home of the late industrialist and entrepreneur William “Bill” E. Flaherty, who died at 90 on May 8. He bought two adjacent properties in 1989 and 1990 with his then-wife, Clementina “Tina” Santi Flaherty, in transactions totaling $3.4 million, property records indicate. The couple, who had ties to New York City, later divorced.

Gates open from a cul-de-sac to the driveway at 315 Chapel Hill Road, a Palm Beach lakefront estate just listed at $59.5 million.
Gates open from a cul-de-sac to the driveway at 315 Chapel Hill Road, a Palm Beach lakefront estate just listed at $59.5 million.

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Broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate holds the listing on Chapel Hill Road, which went active in the Palm Beach Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service on Oct. 4. Angle declined to comment about the property. But his sales listing described the property as offering “spectacular sunset, Intracoastal and downtown views.”

Among the main house’s features are high ceilings and a grandly proportioned living room with a fireplace, the listing says. The layout also includes a formal dining room, and the family room has a wet bar.

In Midtown Palm Beach, the living room at 315 Chapel Road looks out to the Intracoastal Waterway and downtown West Palm Beach. The property just entered the market with a price of $59.5 million.
In Midtown Palm Beach, the living room at 315 Chapel Road looks out to the Intracoastal Waterway and downtown West Palm Beach. The property just entered the market with a price of $59.5 million.

The grounds are landscaped with mature tropical foliage surrounding terraces, the pool and the whirlpool spa.

Another selling point? The Midtown location puts the house in relative close proximity to shopping and dining venues on Royal Poinciana Way, South County Road and Worth Avenue.

Through Reynolds Aluminum, Bill Flaherty helped introduce the metal as a production material to the U.S. automobile industry in the 1970s, according to his obituary. He later founded Horsehead Industries, which became the country’s largest producer of zinc, and the company later acquired Great Lakes Carbon, which held a similar claim for carbon. Flaherty also helped pioneer a new process for recycling zinc dust.

The one-story house and guesthouse have architectural signatures of the Palm Beach Regency style, including triangular pediments, clean-lined silhouettes, porches with classical columns, and flat roofs with decorative finials at the roofline.

The house was last on the market in 2011 with a price of $17.91 million but the listing expired before the property sold, the MLS shows.

Just listed at $59.5 million, an estate at 315 Chapel Hill Road has a lakefront swimming pool among its amenities.
Just listed at $59.5 million, an estate at 315 Chapel Hill Road has a lakefront swimming pool among its amenities.

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The addition of the Chapel Hill Road listing brings to four the number of homes listed at $50 million or more in Palm Beach. That quartet tops out at $77.9 million for a house at 1610 N. Ocean Blvd., which also is being marketed by Angle.

One other residence on Chapel Hill Road is in the MLS, a Palm Beach Regency-style house on a dry lot at 309 Chapel Hill Road. Broker Linda Olsson of Linda R. Olsson Realtor has that home priced at just under $16 million.

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To see more photos of 315 Chapel Hill Road, click on the photo gallery at the top of this page.

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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_Hofheinz. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach lakeside house lists at $59.5M. What makes it so rare?