U.S tennis players and sister’s Venus, and Serena Williams, right, arrive for the Pre-Wimbledon Party, at Kensington Roof Gardens in west London, Thursday June 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)ASSOCIATED PRESS
The co-owned, custom-built, dual-master wing and 3-security gate protected home belonging to tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams is now on the market for $2.695 million. The two bought the property in 1998 for $565,000 and proceeded to create an 8,500-square-foot house with two large private bedroom wings, a media room, library, gourmet kitchen and several large living rooms.
The home is at the end of a secluded cul-de-sac in Palm Beach Garden’s BallinIsles gated golf community which includes access to three championship golf courses and a tennis facility ranked #1 in the country by the USTA. There is also a large clubhouse with restaurant, an outdoor workout area and an additional Sports Complex with pool and hot tubs. The community has 1,575 residences divided into 33 neighborhoods, with 62 homes currently on the market according to the listing page. Those homes range in price from $225,000 for a 2-bed, 2-bath 1,677 square foot home to $3.095 million for a 6-bed, 7.5 bath 8,125 square foot home.
Another famous former resident of the community was Paul Manafort who owned a $1.25 million home in the same BallinIsles community, but he transferred ownership of the property to his wife for the very affordable price of ten dollars.
As Mansion Global noted, building records show an outdoor pool, gazebo and 5,000 square foot patio overlooking the lake were also added to the property. It sits on a nearly one-acre lot, which is one of the largest inside the community, according to the listing. This view from Google Earth shows how secluded the property is with its corner lot and the home’s orientation away from the street and neighbors.
Overhead view of the Williams’ estateGoogle
The Williams sisters have dominated the tennis and business world for decades, with Venus ranked at #60 on ForbesWomen list and Serena ranked at #79, as well as reaching #51 on Forbes Highest Paid Athletes list. Thus it may not be much of a surprise that each private wing comes with a home office. There’s also a juice bar, which may be related to Venus’ affiliation with the Jamba Juice company.
Their impressive achievements in the world of tennis include Venus winning seven Grand Slam titles and Serena winning 23, four gold medals in two Olympics and dozens of titles as doubles players. They have both been ranked number one in tennis several times over, with Serena holding the title for a total of 319 weeks over the course of her career—third behind Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova. Naturally they needed a dedicated place to display all their trophies, which you can see in the picture of their media room with the wall of shelves overflowing with proof of their accomplishments.
Repeated messages to the listing agents were not returned, so I’ll just link to the listing here for where to go to check out the photos. You can see inside the living room from this clip of the reality show the two sisters filmed for ABC Family. The inside shots start at minute 1:05, with Venus practicing guitar and Serena engaging in a very competitive game of UNO.