Even though Palm Beach is buzzing with news about the Kennedy family selling its oceanfront estate, real estate brokers in the town remain skeptical.
Newsweek magazine reported on Sunday that the compound was being placed on the real estate market. Palm Beach brokers shocked by the news spent the evening on the telephone to find out if there was any truth to the report. On Monday, there was still no confirmation.
Richard Allison, of J. Richard Allison & Associates Inc., said he talked with the four major Realtors in town and none had heard anything about the listing.
“We all agree that it is not formally listed with anybody to the best of our knowledge,” Allison said. “I was at a party there six weeks ago, hosted by the Shrivers. I’m sure they would have told me, or at least I would have received a courtesy call.”
Newsweek sources estimated the value of the estate at $3.6 million, but local Realtors said oceanfront property in Palm Beach can run up to $6 million or more.
“It it were in tip-top condition, with the historic value, it would probably be higher,” said Joan E. Blais, a broker with Florida Lifestyles Realty, Inc. “I do think it needs some updating from what I’ve read and seen from the outside of it.”
Officials with the Palm Beach Board of Realtors, which compiles lists of homes for sale, said they had several inquiries about the Kennedys’ North Ocean Boulevard estate on Monday. But they have no listing for the property.
Even the Kennedys’ illustrious neighbor, socialite Mollie Wilmot — the media darling who graciously hosted the crew of the Mercedes I when the 197- foot-long Venezuelan ocean freighter landed on her beach — said she did not know if there was any truth to the rumor.
She attended a charity ball at the Kennedy compound in March and there was no mention of the estate being placed on the market, Wilmot said from the suite of a New York hotel.
The Kennedy estate is not something that could be sold overnight, said Miami attorney Bruce Stone, who is handling Rosemary Kennedy’s estate on behalf of its guardians, her sisters Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Patricia Kennedy Lawford and Jean Kennedy Smith.
“You are dealing with a large family. It would take everyone who has an ownership interest to join together and be able to convey complete good title to the property,” he said.
Stone said he had not received a call about the sale from the Kennedy family.
“The guardianship would certainly have to be involved in the sale of Rosemary Kennedy’s interest to the homestead.”
But if the Kennedys do decide to sell their home, some residents say the island will not be the same without them.
“It’s one of those properties that you think will always be in the family,” Blais said. “There are so many Kennedys.”
