Palm Beach's 'Ham and Cheese House' finds an unnamed buyer at a $105 million ask

The striped house on South Ocean has a buyer

Palm Beach's striped oceanfront "Ham and Cheese House" went under contract Oct. 20 with an unnamed buyer, at an asking price of $105 million. That means a signed deal to buy, not a closed sale. The buyer and the final price are not public. Penny Antonini, the seller, and her late husband, Marion, paid about $16 million for it in 2013, county records show.

Why it matters: It is Palm Beach County's priciest contract of the season, The Real Deal reports, citing the Eklund Gomes Team at the brokerage Douglas Elliman. The Palm Beach County Property Appraiser, the county office that values property for tax bills, puts this house's market value at about $40.9 million in its proposed 2026 tax notice. By our arithmetic, the $105 million ask is about 2.6 times that.

Broker Christian Angle, who holds the listing, declined to comment on the pending sale, the Palm Beach Daily News reports. The appraiser warns, "Taxes will change and often increase substantially when a property sells."

What's next: A deed would show the price, and the appraiser's page says sales usually appear one to three weeks after closing.

Who's who

Penny Antonini is selling the house, the Palm Beach Daily News reports. Her husband, the industrialist Marion Antonini, died in 2021 at 91. Both are still listed as owners on the county record. Christian Angle is the Palm Beach broker who holds the listing. Maurice Fatio, a noted society architect, designed the house for investment banker Mortimer Schiff and his wife, Adele Neustadt Schiff. Douglas Elliman's Eklund Gomes Team tracks every Palm Beach County home listing over $3 million.

The house

Fatio designed the house in the Italian Romanesque style, and the county record dates it to 1927. It was first named Casa Eleda, which is Adele spelled backward. Bands of coral Key stone and red brick give it the stripes behind its nickname, the Daily News reports. The Antoninis renamed it Casa Marius.

Palm Beach declared it a landmark in 1979, the Daily News reports. That generally protects its street-side exterior from major change without the town Landmarks Preservation Commission's approval. A 165-foot tunnel runs under South Ocean Boulevard to the beach and a private cabana. The listing counts seven bedrooms. The county record shows 13,171 square feet under air on a lot of a little more than an acre. The Daily News puts its ocean frontage at about 150 feet.

The Antoninis' restoration won the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach's 2016 Robert I. Ballinger Award, the Daily News reports. The work included a new roof and impact-resistant windows and glass doors, the broker's 2016 summary of the Daily News coverage says.

The price history

The county record lists the parcel's earlier sales: $5.5 million in 1998 and $13 million in 2000. The Antoninis' purchase was recorded at $15.975 million on May 29, 2013. The Real Deal reported in 2013 that the house had been listed at $22.5 million.

The listing entered the market at $105 million in late summer. The Daily News says it went into the listing system Aug. 28, and Galerie reported the price Sept. 9. The Real Deal says the ask works out to $7,970 a square foot. By our arithmetic, $105 million over 13,171 square feet is about $7,970.

The ask is not a profit. It sets a 2026 asking price beside a 2013 purchase price, before the restoration and years of carrying costs. By our arithmetic, the ask is more than six times the 2013 price.

The week's contracts

The house was one of 16 luxury contracts that Palm Beach County buyers signed Oct. 19 to Oct. 25, The Real Deal reports, citing the Eklund Gomes Team. Those contracts totaled $197.5 million in asking prices, the quarter's biggest buying week. Single-family homes made up $169.4 million. By our arithmetic, this house is about 53 percent of the week's asking total.

The tax bill

The property appraiser's 2026 proposed notice puts the market value at $40,904,372 and the taxable value at $27,841,804, with no exemption. The proposed total tax is $496,539. By our arithmetic, the $105 million ask is about 2.6 times that market value. The appraiser's page warns that taxes "often increase substantially when a property sells." We have not estimated a new tax bill.

Their side

Angle declined to comment on the pending sale. He earlier told the Daily News: "The house is one of Palm Beach's true icons, pristinely restored and with a character and pedigree unmatched. It's truly a work of art." Public records do not name the buyer or the amount that will change hands at closing, the Daily News reports.

Sources we read

Palm Beach County Property Appraiser, parcel record for the house, read Oct. 27. Palm Beach Daily News, Oct. 23, via Yahoo. The Real Deal, Oct. 27, 2026 and June 20, 2013. Galerie, Sept. 9. Christian Angle Real Estate, Dec. 12, 2016.