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Most expensive home sale in Tampa Bay may become biggest foreclosure

 
Published Aug. 7, 2018

CLEARWATER — The priciest house for sale in the Tampa Bay area could soon become its biggest foreclosure.

A Miami company has filed a lis pendens on a Clearwater mansion that was once part of the storied Century Oaks estate and is now on the market for nearly $19 million.

Built in 1915 on a huge lot overlooking Clearwater Harbor, the 23,919-square-foot house has had a tangled recent history.

EARLIER COVERAGE: Fabled Clearwater estate sells for a record $11.18 million

In early 2017, powerboat racing champ Hugh Fuller sold it to Princess Yenega Properties LLC for $11.18 million — the highest price ever paid for a bay area home — and Mystery Key LLC took out a $14 million mortgage. The managing members of both companies are Blaise Carroz, whom Bloomberg News once described as a "French-born, Dubai-based real estate developer," and Marata Tapsoba Carroz.

The couple, who had been leasing the house from Fuller, put it back on the market just four months later for $19.75 million. The price was lowered in March to $18.999 million.

Located at 802 Druid Road S in Harbor Oaks, the house has 14 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, a movie theater, beauty salon, walk-in wine cellar, two pools, basketball and tennis courts. According to the listing, Versace wall paper and Swarovski crystal chandeliers are among the 'high-ended designer finishes with materials imported from around the world." There's also a newly remodeled guest house with three bedrooms and three bathrooms.

In 2013, a Louisiana bank foreclosed on a $5 million mortgage on the 28,000-square-foot Tampa home of former corporate raider Paul Bilzerian. That house, on a lakefront lot in the gated Avila community, once was priced at $18 million but sold two years ago for $2.85 million.

Contact Susan Taylor Martin at smartin@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8642. Follow @susanskate

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