The chairman of the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain has listed his direct-oceanfront estate for $96 million on the far North End of Palm Beach.
The listing for Leonard Riggio’s contemporary-style house at 1446 N. Ocean Blvd. entered the “active” category of the multiple listing service late in the afternoon on June 20. It is among the most expensive single-family homes ever marketed for sale in the MLS, records show.
The Palm Beach Daily News is the first media outlet to report the listing.
Riggio and his wife, Louise, bought the house in 2003 for $14 million and in 2009 expanded the property with the purchase of an adjacent parcel for $1.45 million, courthouse records show.
The land measures 1.68 acres with about 205 feet of beachfront, according to property records. But because the rear of the house faces a federally protected dune-and-beach parcel of about the same size, the estate appears much larger than it actually is.
Broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates holds the listing. Moens and the Riggios couldn’t be reached for comment.
Built in 1979, the house stands at the point where the coastal road makes a sharp curve, about two-fifths of a mile from the inlet at the northern tip of the island.
In all, the house has seven bedrooms and 11,042 square feet of living space, inside and out, including 8,005 square feet under air conditioning.
The guest area spans two floors on the opposite side of the house.
The Riggios’ house has modular-style architecture. A one-story atrium at the front door connects the largest part of the residence — with the public rooms and a second-floor primary bedroom suite — on the south to the guest area on the north. That bedroom has an oceanfront balcony and adjoining sitting room. The second level also has a sun terrace overlooking look the pool area.
The house stands three lots south of land that was once home to the estate of the late conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh. That 2.65-acre estate sold privately for a recorded $155 million in March 2023 and was then razed by the buyer, a company controlled by Estée Lauder billionaire William Lauder.
The first floor of the main wing at the Riggio house has a living room, sunroom, dining room, a covered outdoor loggia, an outside dining courtyard and kitchen.
The Riggios have longtime ties to New York. Leonard Riggio’s career as a bookseller began in 1965, according to an online biographical sketch. In 1971, he acquired the Barnes & Noble trade name and flagship bookstore in Manhattan, merging it with his own bookselling business, the company’s website says. He grew Barnes & Noble exponentially until it was billed as the world’s largest bookselling company.
Barnes & Noble today is owned by Elliott Advisors (UK) Ltd. and run by CEO and bookseller James Daunt, who is also managing director of Waterstones bookstores in the United Kingdom and founder and owner of Daunt Books. Riggio remains chairman of the board, according to the company’s website.
Riggio and his wife bought the house from retired automotive executive Stanley N. Gaines and his Republican Party activist wife, Gay Hart Gaines, who owned a house next door they sold for a recorded $41.5 million in 2012. Moens handled both sides of that off-market sale at 1473 N. Ocean Blvd, according to reporting by the Palm Beach Daily News.
The Gaineses had nicknamed the estate they sold to the Riggios “Turtle Beach.”
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To see more photos of 1446 N. Ocean Blvd., click on the photo gallery at the top of this page.
This is a developing story. Check back for any updates.
Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email [email protected], call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Barnes & Noble chairman’s Palm Beach seaside home lists at $96 million
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