CÉLINE SELLS FLORIDA HOME
Asked for $72.5M, got only $38.5M
Almost four years after trying to sell her Florida estate for $72.5 million, pop superstar Céline Dion has finally sold the multimillion dollar Jupiter Island home for close to $38.5 million — only 53 per cent of the asking price on the property.
Dion and her husband, René Angélil, who died of cancer last year, built the spectacular oceanfront mansion in 2010. The property has 13 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, a guest house, several pools and a water park.
Montreal real estate broker Joseph Montanaro said he helped sell the property, along with a broker who is licensed to sell property in Florida. Montanaro said he can’t identify the new owner, but said the American buyer wanted the property as a vacation home. The sale was finalized last week.
Dion had to lower the asking price several times because the resale market for luxury homes in Jupiter, Fla., has not been very strong over the past few years. “Sometimes when sellers put a lot of money in a house, there’s always a gamble that you might not get back what you put in, especially in the short term,” said Montanaro, who is associated with Sotheby’s. “The sellers spared no expense in building this estate.”
In February 2016, Montanaro represented Dion when she sold her Normand-style château for $25.5 million. The chateau is on a private island near Laval.
Dion spends most of her time in Las Vegas where she performs at Caesars Palace and the Florida home wasn’t being used, Montanaro said. He said he was hired by Dion’s team after having sold a property in Montreal that was owned by one of the singer’s friends. He wouldn’t say what his commission was on the sale of the Florida property but said “it makes for a nice reward after having the property on the market for this length of time.”
Montanaro is also selling Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty’s house in an exclusive area of Brossard for $1.988 million. Five years after moving into a custombuilt house in the Domaines de la Rive-Sud neighbourhood, Pacioretty is looking for a bigger house for his family.