Sale brings highest price ever for a Tampa-area home

A 17,000-square-foot waterfront estate in Clearwater called Century Oaks sold for $11.18 million, the highest sale price ever for a Tampa-area home.

Mary Ann McArthur, an agent with Coastal Properties Group/Christies International Real Estate, who held the listing for Century Oaks together with Kerryn Ellson, declined to identify the buyer. She told the Tampa Bay Times the new occupants of the estate “are international … not movie stars or celebrities, just a very nice family.”

Property records still show that the seller, powerboat racer Hugh Fuller, is the owner of Century Oaks, a 102-year-old property overlooking Clearwater Harbor.

Fuller bought the estate for $5.5 million in 1996 from British Formula 1 racecar driver Nigel Mansell. Mansell bought it from Robert Brown, who invented the black paint applied to Model T Ford automobiles.

In 2013, Fuller listed the 10-bedroom main house, a guest house and boat house for sale with an asking price of $17.5 million.

When it failed to sell, Fuller tried to sell the property at auction in 2014 with a minimum initial bid of $8.5 million. Three bidders made offers, but none of them closed a purchase.

The new owner paid $11.18 million on April 4 for the main house and the guest house. Fuller retained the boat house, which spans 2,500 square feet.

A New York City developer named Dean Alvord built Century Oaks in 1915 on the site of a military fort in an area called Harbor Oaks, the first planned residential subdivision in Clearwater. [Tampa Bay Times] — Mike Seemuth