America’s Most Expensive Home Sold at Auction

Le Palais Royal, now renamed Playa Viste Isle in Hillsboro Beach Florida sold for $139 million while under construction

At one time Le Palais Royal, now renamed Playa Vista Isle, in Hillsboro Beach, Florida was the most expensive home on the U.S. market at $139 million while still under construction. With construction completed in 2018, it was re-listed at $159 million and will now go to auction on November 12th with no reserve.

Modeled after the Palace of Versailles in France, Playa Vista Isle is located on the Atlantic Ocean, about halfway between Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale’s luxury beach condos - a wealthy enclave of ornate mansions that the locals refer to as ‘Millionaire’s Mile.’ A special feature unique to the town is that homeowners can swim and sun in their oceanfront backyards and then walk a few feet out their front doors to their yachts docked across the ritzy street on the Intracoastal Waterway.

Playa Vista Isle originally went on the market in 2014 as Le Palais Royal with the $139 million price tag, selling unfinished. After a year with no takers, the transportation facilities construction owner (bridges, highways and rail) pulled it off to complete it and made additions both in land and amenities. The adjacent 2± acre north lot (part of the total 5± acres) may be left as-is or used for future development, and can accommodate an additional structure, garden area or recreational facility.

The 58,000-square-foot Beaux Arts mansion with 30,000 square feet of living space is on over five acres between 500-feet of Atlantic Ocean beachfront and 500-feet of the Intracoastal near the picturesque Hillsboro Lighthouse. Although the South Florida beaches are public below the high tide line, this beach is hard to access behind the street of mansions and thick landscape, thereby affording the home additional privacy. The main house has a 20-car subterranean garage and 11 bedrooms and 22 baths, which include three master suites and a presidential room with a plunge pool on its outdoor terrace. There is also an 18-seat IMAX home theater with a 50-foot-wide screen. The marble floors have soundproof insulation to dispel the annoying sound of high-heeled socialites clicking across the hard surface.

Prior to the new additions, grounds already included a putting green, a 29-foot, three-tier fountain, a 4,500-square-foot infinity pool, double-loop enclosed waterslide and a glassbottomed Jacuzzi suspended over the swimming pool, white sand beach and two newly constructed deep-water concrete docks on the Intracoastal. Some of the world’s best deepsea fishing and the Florida Coral Reef are just minutes away by boat via the Hillsboro Inlet.

One of the most expensive and luxurious mansions in the U.S., listed at $159 million with 500 feet of beachfront and the same on Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway, is co-presented by ONE Sotheby’s International Realty and Concierge Auctions.