AL CAPONE HIDEOUT to BURT REYNOLDS RANCH to 30 HOME DEVELOPMENT
Palm Beach County Commissioners gave approval this week for the old Burt Reynolds Ranch to become a development of 30 homes.
The property located at 16133 Jupiter Farms Road in Jupiter has a long and interesting history. It is rumored to have been a gangster hideout in the 1920’s. Notorious gangster Al Capone is said to have built the original home on the property in 1923. Capone mostly hung out in Miami, but he did not particularly like it there. A news report places Capone in Palm Beach County in 1930. At the time, West Jupiter and West Palatka were the moonshine capitals of the world. Capone also took the name of Al Brown and lived in a summer cottage in West Jupiter off Italian Farms Road (now Jupiter Farms Road, SR#3). There are foundations of other homes that still exist along the road on private property. One residence that remained was on Burt Reynolds Ranch.
The veteran actor, known for notable roles in Smokey and the Bandit, Deliverance, The Longest Yard, Striptease and many more, purchased the 153-acre property. Reynolds owned the ranch for years, complete with a petting zoo, shot scenes for the movie Smokey and the Bandit, as well as the television series B.L. Stryker there. His father Burt Reynolds’s, Sr., a former police chief of Riviera Beach, also lived on the ranch. He also married actress Loni Anderson at a chapel on the property in 1988.
The Palm Beach County School District purchased the property in 1999 for $3.8 million hoping to shore up budget woes. The District planned to build a middle school but enrollment projections said the west rural area of The Town of Jupiter will not need a middle school for at least another ten years and the property was sold.
Last year K. Hovnanian Homes agreed to purchase the property for $5 million. Under the plan approved, the county’s comprehensive plan to double the number of homes from 15 to 30 homes was unanimously approved. The homes will be clustered on 40% of the property, with 60% preserved as open space retaining the rustic natural look of the area. The allowable density on the property is one home per 10 acres. The changes also include a “reverted clause” stating that the property reverts to its former land-use designations if K. Hovnanian Homes fails to develop the property.
Please direct any inquiries about this property to the real estate professionals specializing in farms and ranches at Waterfront Properties and Club Communities 561-746-7272 or send an email to: Kpalmer@wfpcc.com.
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