It’s definitely no foxhole in the Vietnamese jungle! The evergreen, ever-buff movie star that is Sylvester Stallone appears to have joined the growing bandwagon of ungodly rich celebs heading to high-nosed and insanely wealthy Palm Beach, Fla., seeking a sun-soaked, tax-friendly lifestyle. Like Palm Beachers before them Sly and his wife Jennifer Flavin opened the floodgates of their bank accounts with the hefty $35.4 million purchase of a waterfront estate, as was initially reported by the Palm Beach Daily News.
The gated Bermuda-style compound was built in 2014 and sprawls across roughly 1.5 landscaped acres with an attractive cross-hatch patterned motor court lined with tropical plantings. Just walking the palm-tree-clustered grounds of the more-than 13,200-square-foot, seven-bedroom, 12-bathroom property is likely to be a good calorie burn for the gym obsessed septuagenarian action flick superstar. In addition to the main house, the estate includes two guest houses, one of them a stand-alone waterside pavilion, plus an open-air cabana that faces a keyhole-shaped pool surrounded by manicured lawns and swaying palms. A separate semi-circular spa is sited just a few feet away from the sandy water’s edge.
A spacious living room sports vast expanses of floor-to-ceiling windows and lustrous wood cladding on the ceiling, while the seller’s Basquiat painting adds arty sophistication to the formal dining room that easily seats fourteen. With sleek, premium-quality designer appliances and striated wood cabinets polished to a light-reflecting sheen, the kitchen is plenty roomy enough to float a table in the center of the room for casual family meals.
Upstairs, the spacious master bedroom takes in shimmering water views and incorporates a bedroom-sized walk-in closet and dressing room, and an en-suite master bath that showcases two walls of windows around a soaking tub and glass enclosed shower area. A nearby fitness room is a long way from the sweaty Philly boxing rings where Rocky cut his teeth.
Wood-clad cathedral ceilings add grandeur to the detached guest pavilion that comprises an airy lounge with lacquered wet bar and fireplace. French doors dramatically open to estate’s 250 feet of private water frontage.
According to the Palm Beach Daily News, Sly purchased the property from Ronald and Cindy McMackin — owners of Pan-Pacific Mechanical, an obviously very successful pipe design and manufacturing concern — who paid $26.65 million for the posh spread in September 2018. The 24-month mark-up of almost $10 million is indicative of the stratospheric price increases in South Florida’s luxury market. Broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates represented the McMackins in the sale of the property, which was listed at $37.85 million. Interestingly enough, Moens was once the owner of the poperty, expanding its construction when he took it on from original developer in 2012 with the intent of completing it for his own use. Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate represented Stallone and Flavin.
Stallone, who has a long history with the south Florida area and sold a grand estate near Coconut Grove in 1999 for $16.2 million, has long made his primary home in the over-the-top gated community of Beverly Park in Beverly Hills, Calif., where his nearby neighbors include Paul Reiser and the longtime home of late media and entertainment tycoon Sumner Redstone. Until last summer, he and Flavin also maintained an almost 4,900-square-foot getaway in an elite and guard-gated golf club the upscale California desert community of La Quinta that was acquired a decade ago for $4.5 million and, after several failed attempts, finally sold for $3.15 million, a nearly $1.5 million loss.