Landmarked Midtown estate brings $8.8M

Palm Beach attorney Emmett E. Tracy Jr. and his wife, Marilyn, have parted with Villa Filipponi their 1929 landmarked estate at 322 Clarke Ave. for a recorded $8.775 million.

A revocable trust in the name of Marilyn Tracy sold the seven-bedroom house on a double lot in Midtown to a Delaware limited liability company named EJHFL LLC, according to the deed recorded Wednesday. No other information about the buyer was immediately available because of Delawares strict corporate privacy laws.

Fite Shavell & Asssociates agent Thor M. Brown had listed the house for sale at about $10.9 million in August 2013, and the property landed under contract in March, according to records in the Palm Beach Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service. But the sale did not close until this week.

Brown said a confidentiality agreement prevented any of the parties involved from discussing the sale. MLS records list the buyers real estate agent as Gary Pohrer of K2 Realty.

With 7,682 square feet of living space inside and out, the Spanish Mediterranean-style house stands one house east of Cocoanut Row on four-tenths of an acre.

The Tracys have downsized to a four-bedroom home at 161 Main St., which Marilyn Tracys trust bought in October for a recorded $4.3 million. The seller was Laura T. Andrassy, the first wife of professional golfer Greg Norman. Brown acted on the Tracys behalf in that deal opposite agents Toni Hollis and Gloria Mor, who also work at Fite Shavell.

The house entered the towns landmarks registry in 2002, about five years after the Tracys paid Thomas and Renate McKnight $3.2 million for it, according to property records.

Although the house is usually attributed to noted society architect Marion Sims Wyeth, the Landmarks Preservation Commissions designation report did not identify the architect. Because the house is landmarked, exterior walls viewed from the street cannot be significantly altered.

The house already had been renovated and expanded by other owners before the Tracys bought it. They have family ties to the Detroit area.

In 2004, the Tracys expanded a sitting room, built an adjacent outdoor pergola and enlarged the guest apartment and garage, according to a 2013 Daily News article.

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Landmarked Midtown estate brings $8.8M