The former chairman of publishing giant McGraw Hill sold his waterfront Gulf Stream house to a managing director at Merrill Lynch for $8 million.
John L. McGraw and his wife, Marjorie, sold the 6,000-square-foot home at 2985 North Ocean Boulevard, according to records. The McGraws bought the house in 2006 for $7 million.
The house, on almost an acre, was built in 1948 and has five bedrooms and six bathrooms, according to an online listing. Cole and Betty Devitt of The Corcoran Group had the listing. Cole Devitt also represented the buyer, Keith E. Rowling.
The house listed in May for $9 million.
John McGraw, of Osterville, Massachusetts, is a former director and chairman of McGraw Hill, now known as one of the big three educational publishers for pre-K to postgraduate education. McGraw’s father, Donald, was president of the company. His brother, also named Donald, was an executive vice president. His grandfather, James, founded the publishing company.
Rowling is a Palm Beach-based managing director at Merrill Lynch, where he’s worked since 2017, according to his LinkedIn. Before that, he served as a managing director and financial adviser at Morgan Stanley for about nine years. He previously served as a vice president at UBS.
Merrill gives advisers the managing director title if they generate two consecutive years of $2.5 million-plus in annual production, or $4 million in total revenue, according to AdvisorHub.
Forbes ranked Rowling No. 4 on its 2019 “Next Gen Best-in-State Wealth Advisors” list, No. 5 on its 2020 “America’s Next Gen Advisors” list, and No. 14 on its 2020 “Best-in-State Wealth Advisors” list. It described Rowling’s typical household account size as $2.5 million to $5 million, his team assets as $737 million and a $3 million minimum account size for new business, all as of July.
In other Gulf Stream deals, this month the founder of the Flex Seal Family of Products paid $20 million for a 1-acre oceanfront compound, marking a record for residential sales in the town. In September, Maryland car dealer Jack Antwerpen and his wife paid $18.5 million for a waterfront mansion in Gulf Stream.