John Lennon’s former Palm Beach estate in Florida has popped up for sale for $47.5 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. No doubt the superstar British Beatles musician and his wife Yoko Ono envisioned escaping the brutal New York winters in the Florida sun, though they bought the property only months before his 1980 assassination.
The 14,000 sq. ft., seven-bedroom, nine-bath Mediterranean-style home was built around 1920 by resort architect Addison Mizner. The current owners, John and Cindy Sites, purchased the property, known as El Solano, for $23 million in 2016. John Sites is a former executive at Bear Stearns and currently a partner at investment firm Wexford Capital, while his wife founded a chain of barre fitness studios called Go Figure.
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As per the listing description, the property features an oceanfront dining room, library and grand salon with a wet bar, a study and a large open terrace. Also, included is a tennis pavilion and a three-car garage.
Interestingly, Robert Rosen’s book “Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon,” reveals that Lennon and Ono never actually visited the property before buying it for $725,000.
“Instead, they dispatched a servant to take Polaroid pictures,” Rosen wrote. “The servant would tell the real-estate agent that he represented a businessman who preferred to remain anonymous. Yoko would then study the pictures with her Council of Seers.”
The singer/songwriter and his wife planned an extensive renovation after purchasing the property, which was completed by Ono after Lennon’s death, before she sold the estate in 1986 for $3.15 million.
The compound is surrounded by high-profile neighbors including Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman and rock star Rod Stewart, while the property next door is owned by prolific novelist James Patterson.
In fact, according to the Palm Beach Daily News, Patterson actually shares a wall with the Sites’ guesthouse, giving the impression that the two properties are linked, though they are on separate parcels.