A historic cottage where the late Jimmy Buffett kicked back near the ocean in Palm Beach has changed hands for $6.11 million, more than 20 years after the “Margaritaville” singer and businessman bought the property through an ownership company.
The sold price for the just-closed sale of 138 Root Trail was included Nov. 6 with the updated listing in the multiple listing service. The Palm Beach Daily News is the first media outlet to report the sale.
Buffett had a music studio in a separate building next to the two-bedroom cottage, which stands on a historic Palm Beach street where the singer’s family still owns two houses, both of which are listed for sale.
Buffett’s limited liability company, Sadeca Realty LLC, paid $802,000 for the one-story bungalow in 2002 — his first house on Root Trail. The wood-frame cottage was built sometime between 1900 and 1915, town records show. The town designated the house a landmark in 2018, protecting its exterior walls from significant alteration without the permission of the local landmarks board.
Surrounded by a picket fence, the bungalow has a separate one-bedroom building that Buffett used as a music studio. The buildings have 1,673 square feet of living space, inside and out, according to the sales listing.
Among the main house’s features is a window-lined porch that runs nearly the width of the street-side facade. There’s also a rear patio — with two outdoor showers — where a guesthouse once stood.
Because a deed for the sale had not been recorded as of early Nov. 6, there was no word about who bought the cottage or the price that is expected to be documented by the Palm Beach County Clerk’s office.
Buffett died of cancer in September 2023 at 76 in New York. In April of that year, he was named a billionaire for the first time by Forbes.com.
His death left legions of shocked and saddened fans — known as “Parrotheads” — who were devoted to him, his laid-back lifestyle and his music, including his iconic songs “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “Come Monday,” “Fins” and “A Pirate Looks at Forty.”
Real estate agent Jim McCann of Premier Estate Properties handled the buyer’s side of the sale on Root Trail. McCann would not identify his clients by name but said the house was not purchased by die-hard Buffet fans.
“I think they know of Jimmy Buffett, but I can’t say they are, in the true sense of the word, ‘Parrotheads,’” McCann said.
He added: “What attracted them was the charm of Root Trail, the 100-year-old house, the proximity to the beach and the (convenience) of amenities in the Royal Poinciana Way commercial district — the restaurants and shops and so forth.”
Among Palm Beach’s oldest streets, Root Trail runs between the ocean and North County Road, four streets north of The Breakers resort.
With an asking priced of $7.25 million, the Palm Beach cottage was listed for sale in July along with the two other Buffett houses on the narrow North End street. The Palm Beach Daily News broke the news of the listings and was the first media outlet to report that 138 Root Trail had landed under contract in mid-October.
Although he is often associated with Key West, Jimmy Buffett and his widow, Jane, bought and sold other houses in Palm Beach. The singer’s ownership company bought the Root Trail cottage while the Buffetts still owned an oceanfront mansion across town at 540 S. Ocean Blvd., which they sold for more than $18 million about 14 years ago.
The wealthy town’s reputation for privacy and its small-town atmosphere appealed to him, the singer said in 2015, as did Root Trail’s easy access to the beach for surfing and swimming. Although Palm Beach is known for its oceanfront mansions and lakeside estates, there are many smaller homes on the island, including the ones on Root Trail and other parts of the North End.
The cottage stands on the south side of Root Trail, with the two other Buffett houses just opposite it. Together, their lots measure less than a fifth of an acre.
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With many period details intact, the house that sold at No. 138 has Dade County pine plank floors, ceilings with exposed beams, and a skylight in the well-equipped kitchen.
The bungalow was originally built on block piers and surfaced with wood clapboard siding, according to a report prepared as part of the landmarking process. The cottage is one of the oldest examples of so-called “frame vernacular” buildings in Palm Beach, and the scarcity of such houses added to its historical significance, the report said.
Once an artist’s colony, Root Trail is lined with historic buildings, many of them beach cottages, apartments or restored houses.
In 2013, Buffett added to his Root Trail holdings by buying the two side-by-side, two-story houses across the street. Their architecture is reminiscent of homes in Key West.
The three properties on Root Trail were co-listed by agent Blake Hanley of Brown Harris Stevens and his mother, Denise Hanley — the Buffetts’ longtime real estate broker — of Denise A. Hanley Inc. Blake Hanley declined to comment about the sale or the ownership of the cottage.
Denise Hanley previously told the Palm Beach Daily News the cottage stands on a “barefoot-on-the-beach” sort of street. “There’s nothing in Palm Beach really like it,” she said. “It’s a really cool street — so historic, with an Old Palm Beach (vibe),” she said when the three houses were first listed for sale.
Root Trail, she said, is especially a favorite of people who, like herself, have lived in town for a long time. “It’s always drawn the ‘beachiest’ of us,” she said, adding that as a boy, her son always dreamed one day of living there.
The two other Buffett houses listed for sale are addressed as Unit A and Unit B at 135 Root Trail. Unit A has three bedrooms and 2,450 total square feet, property records show, and is priced at $6.65 million.
Priced at $6.125 million, Unit B has two bedrooms and 2,660 total square feet. Each of the properties has 2,101 square feet under air-conditioning, their sales listings show.
Connected by a brick-paved breezeway, the houses at No. 135 were once part of a two-building apartment complex dating from at least the 1920s. They were converted by developers more than a decade ago into separate single-family houses connected by a breezeway and courtyard.
Buffett bought the houses at No. 135 in separate transactions using his ownership company, courthouse records show. In March 2013, he paid $950,000 for Unit B, which at the time had finished interiors. In May of the same year, he paid $1.3 million for the easternmost home, Unit A, when its interiors were still unfinished.
Both of the houses at No. 135 have hardwood floors, single-car garages and well-equipped kitchens. Unit A also features tray ceilings and crown moldings, while some rooms in Unit B have ceilings covered in wood planks.
Buffett owned all of his Palm Beach real estate through his Sadeca Realty LLC, for which he served as manager, state business records show.
In 2010, the Buffetts sold their since-demolished-and-replaced mansion facing the ocean at 540 S. Ocean Blvd. for a recorded $18.5 million. They had bought the mansion for $4.4 million in 1994, property records show.
In 2011, the couple paid just under $5 million for a North End home at 309 Garden Road, which they sold in 2020 for $6.9 million, according to courthouse records.
In addition to the Palm Beach compound on Root Trail, the Buffetts’ real estate portfolio included homes on Sunset Road in West Palm Beach and in Daytona Beach; Beverly Hills, California; and Sag Harbor, New York.
Known for his business acumen, Jimmy Buffett built his fortune by performing and recording his music but also by licensing song titles and capitalizing on the Margaritaville brand for hotels, restaurants, lounges, home furnishings and other products.
In late June, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill that named Florida State Road A1A after Buffett.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
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To see more photos of the late Jimmy Buffett’s longtime cottage at 138 Root Trail in Palm Beach, click on the photo gallery at the top of this page.
Portions of this story appeared previously in the Palm Beach Daily News.
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 dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz.
