1320 North Lake WayJordanian Princess Alia bint Al-Hussein, half-sister of King Abdullah II, ruler of Jordan, is selling one of her posh Palm Beach mansions for $17.5 million, $6.5 million more than she paid for it last year.
In July 2008, the princess and her husband, Mohammad Anwar Farid Al-Saleh, bought the elegant lakefront home at 1320 North Lake Way in Eden Villa for $11 million from diamond mogul, Thomas Shane, CEO of Denver, Colo.-based Shane Company, one of the largest direct diamond importers in the country. Shane bought the property in 2004 for $8.26 million, according to property records.
The Corcoran Group, which declined to comment on the listing, touts the 10,320-square-foot house on its Web site as a “classical Mediterranean villa [that] fulfills your every desire in upscale living.”
The seven-bedroom villa has Italian tile floors and 10-foot high ceilings. There is a plush tropical garden near the 60-foot lap pool and cabana, which has a kitchen. In addition, the lakefront property has an 150-foot deep dock “capable of accommodating almost any sea-going vessel including those over 100 feet in length.”
The price tag seems a bit steep in a soft market where market observers generally believe that luxury home prices have reverted to the same levels as 2004 and 2005. And concrete data bears that out.
According to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office, the market value of the estate was $10.6 million in 2008 and by preliminary measures is valued at only $8.9 million for 2009. Zillow.com estimates the estate is worth between $7.4 million on the low end and $11.35 million on the high end.
The Jordanian royal couple, who reportedly have seldom, if ever, used the house, also own the bigger house next door at 1330 North Lake Way. It was valued at $11.5 million in 2008, according to county property records. Zillow.com estimates the worth of that property at between $9 million and $14 million.
The princess is the eldest daughter of the late King Hussein, who died in 1999, and his first of four wives, Egyptian-born Sharifa Dina bint Abdul-Hamid or “Queen Dina,” whom he divorced in 1957.
The princess’s husband, Al-Saleh, filed a lawsuit in April 2008 against Harry Sargeant III, a resident of Gulf Stream and major Republican fundraiser and former finance chairman for the Florida Republican Party. The suit, which has not been settled, alleged Sargeant failed to pay him a $13 million commission on profits from a deal that arranged “safe transport” of more than $1 billion in oil shipments through Jordan to U.S. troops in Iran.