$155-million teardown: Billionaire W. Lauder razing Rush Limbaugh's old Palm Beach estate
After paying $155 million in March for the Palm Beach, Florida, oceanfront estate of the late conservative firebrand Rush Limbaugh, cosmetics billionaire William P. Lauder is tearing it down.
Crews have been at work this week demolishing the estate at 1495 N. Ocean Blvd., which Lauder bought through an ownership company from Limbaugh’s widow, Kathryn Adams Limbaugh, in an off-market deal.
This isn’t the first uber-pricey teardown Lauder has acquired in Palm Beach. Last year, he demolished a six-year-old beachfront mansion down the street after buying it in late 2021 for more than $110 million — a price cited by several people familiar with the private sale. Lauder combined that cleared land with an empty oceanside lot he owned next door and listed the resulting 2.34 acres for a combined $200 million, the most expensive vacant property ever listed for sale in Palm Beach. The two lots are about a mile south of the old Limbaugh estate.
The price Lauder’s company paid for the former Limbaugh estate briefly set a new sales record in Palm Beach.
Lauder is said to be planning a custom home on the old Limbaugh property, according to people familiar with it. But no plans have been submitted to Town Hall yet for officials to review.
The Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Network, was the first media outlet to report the demolition of the former Limbaugh estate.
The 2.65-acre estate was home for more than two decades to Rush Limbaugh, who died there at age 70 in 2021. Facing about 250 feet of beachfront, the property is near the inlet at the north tip of the island. On the east side, it fronts an expansive parcel of federally protected dune vegetation leading to the beach. The beach parcel is not part of the estate but makes the property appear larger than the acreage listed in property records.
Limbaugh’s two-story house fronting the ocean was built in 1992 with five bedrooms and 21,487 square feet of living space, inside and out. Of that total square footage, 16,629 square feet was air-conditioned space, according to property records.
Limbaugh also had two smaller houses on the estate, immediately west of his main residence. One of those houses was built in 1951 with 2,590 square feet at 1501 N. Ocean Blvd., while the other — at 108 Mediterranean Road — was built in 1934 with four bedrooms and 3,870 square feet.
John O. Pickett III, president of the Palm Beach Board of Realtors, said he was not familiar with Lauder’s plans for the property.
But Pickett said oceanfront land in Palm Beach has always fetched high-dollar prices — and even higher ones over the past three years because of the real estate boom sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and fueled by Florida’s favorable tax picture and other factors.
“Premium land commands premium prices, and they’re not making any more of it in Palm Beach,” said Pickett, a real estate agent at Brown Harris Stevens.
Pickett added: “The cost to renovate can be just as much as much as the cost to build new. People will build what they want to build. It’s just a matter of personal preference.”
Limbaugh’s widow had the house homesteaded as her primary residence in the latest tax rolls before she sold it to Lauder’s limited liability company, 1495 N Ocean Blvd LLC.
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Lauder’s family has deep roots in Palm Beach. He is executive chairman of The Estée Lauder Cos., the cosmetics empire named for his grandmother. His net worth is estimated at $3.7 billion by Forbes.com.
His father, Leonard Lauder, has a home in Palm Beach and headed the cosmetics company for 17 years.
William Lauder reportedly has other homes in New York and Aspen, Colorado. He and a spokeswoman for The Estee Lauder Cos. could not be immediately reached for comment Friday.
The old Limbaugh estate was never listed for sale in the multiple listing service but had been shopped quietly since for months before it sold last spring, according to those familiar with the property. The asking price was said to be between $150 million and $175 million.
It was unclear whether any real estate agents were involved in the sale. Premier Estate Properties real estate agent Jim McCann, who holds the $200-million listing for Lauder's vacant land at 1071 and 1063 N. Ocean Blvd., has declined to discuss the matter. But McCann has represented Lauder in other transactions, according to sales records and people familiar with those deals.
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With architecture influenced by buildings in the West Indies, the former Limbaugh mansion included a beachfront swimming pool along with multiple covered loggias, balconies, windows and glass doors facing the ocean.
Rush Limbaugh for more than three decades hosted the ultra-conservative talk radio program “The Rush Limbaugh Show” and also was a television pundit. At one point, he broadcast his radio program from his Palm Beach estate but later established a studio across town on Royal Palm Way.
Limbaugh died in February 2021, a little more than a year after revealing he had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.
The Palm Beach Daily News last fall was the first media outlet to report that Lauder had quietly bought the mansion on the lot at 1071 S. Ocean Blvd and planned to demolish it. Demolition there began in late October.
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.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Billionaire William P. Lauder razes old Rush Limbaugh Palm Beach home
