NEWPORT — A building lot spanning 26.75 acres in the city was recently sold for $11 million, marking the highest sale of empty land in Newport County history, according to Lila Delman Compass, the real estate company that represented the seller in the agreement. .
Lot A of a historic estate known as Seaward is located at 339 Ocean Ave., perched above Ocean Drive, with views of the Atlantic Ocean, Price Neck Cove and the Newport Country Club.
The property was severed from an overall 45-acre complex, leading to the sale of Lot B with two existing homes on the property for $16 million in September last year.
At the time, the sale of the nearly 20-acre Lot B site was the biggest real estate transaction in Rhode Island since 2019, when 10 Bluff Ave. to Westerly was sold for $17.6 million.
The properties were originally put on the market together for an aggregate asking price of $45 million, which would have shattered Rhode Island real estate records. Lila Delman Compass said she then reimagined and repositioned the property through a two-lot subdivision, which sparked increased interest from buyers.
The resort at 339 Ocean Ave. was once home to Candace and James Van Alen, who were Newport socialites and founders of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. A fire in 1976 gutted the building they lived in on the property, which was also formerly known as the Avalon Estate.
The sale of the property 339 Ocean Ave. in 2004 set a residential real estate record in Rhode Island when it was purchased for $10.3 million. The fire-damaged building occupied by the Van Alens was later demolished and the current homes were built there over a four-year period, completed in 2008, according to Lila Delman Compass.
The Lot A property was owned by Atlantic Properties Revocable Trust and trustee Seth A. Gelber and was last appraised by City of Newport assessors last year to be worth approximately $8 million.
A copy of the deed documenting the real estate transaction was not immediately available through the City of Newport’s online real estate database.
Marc Larocque is a contributing writer for PBN.
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