Dow Jones heir sells Venetian Islands home to Brazilian buyer for $6M

35 East San Marino Drive. Inset: listing agent Julian Johnston
35 East San Marino Drive. Inset: listing agent Julian Johnston

A member of the family that sold Dow Jones Co. to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp a decade ago just sold his Venetian Islands home for $6.2 million, property records show.

A Brazilian buyer purchased the waterfront house at 35 East San Marino Drive in Miami Beach, listing agent Julian Johnson said. He declined to name the buyer or sellers, but records show William C. Cox III and Beatrice Cox sold the property to Benco Brasil Ltd., a British Virgin Islands company. No financing was recorded.

William Cox is part of the Bancroft family, which sold its shares of Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, for more than $1.2 billion in 2007.  Cox, a former manager at Dow Jones, and his wife bought the five-bedroom, 4,130-square-foot house in 2012 for $4.73 million. It was built in 1941 on a 12,900-square-foot lot, and was renovated about five years ago.

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The property hit the market with Johnston, owner/broker of Calibre International Realty, about a year ago for nearly $7 million, but was reduced in December to about $6.5 million. Johnston said he saw more activity once he dropped the price, and said the house sold for the land value. The sale price breaks down to about $480 per square foot for the land, and $1,500 per square foot for the home.

Given its age and size, the house will likely be torn down. Last month, the Venetian Islands house at 28 West Dilido Drive sold for $10 million to a South African buyer who plans to build a new mansion. The 13,400-square-foot property sold for nearly $750 per square foot.

New construction on the Venetian Islands has been selling for big-ticket prices since the beginning of the year. In February, venture capitalist Jim Goetz bought an 11,600-square-foot Di Lido Island mansion for a record $22 million. A month earlier, a French buyer paid $13.2 million for a newly built 7,076-square-foot home on San Marino Island.