“Mr. Key West” puts private island up for sale
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Retreat for high-profile guests from Truman Capote to the Bee Gees
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James Bond once landed on the island in “Licence to Kill”
Hamburg/ Florida, 25 June 2013. David Wolkowsky, the famous Florida-based visionary
and investor who earned the name “Mr. Key West” for his sterling efforts to preserve the historic character of his home town, is selling his private island Ballast Key. This jewel of a
property is a truly rare offering on the property market.
“When I look at things,” he once said, “I'm always desperately looking for beauty.” He swiftly
qualified this with what beauty is about in his eyes: it is always the unconventional, unusual
and unique that attracts him. This maxim can certainly be applied to Wolkowsky’s private island Ballast Key. Lying some 15 kilometres to the west of Key West, it can be reached from
the mainland in just under 25 minutes by boat or ten minutes by helicopter. The 110,000 sqm
isle is the only private island in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and the southernmost
inhabited island in the USA. The purchase price is 15.8 million US dollars (approx. 12.2 million euros).
Ballast Key affords absolute privacy – there are no neighbours within a 13-kilometre radius –
as well as an air of glamour and mystique. The island has been David Wolkowsky’s private retreat ever since he acquired it from the Navy in the 1970s. But he has also hosted a great many
prominent guests over the years, including the likes of former British Prime Minister Edward
Heath, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Leonard Bernstein, Prince Michael of Greece, Truman
Capote, Gloria Estefan and the Bee Gees. The acclaimed author Tennessee Williams was another frequent visitor to the island, where he came to paint. Ballast Key also features in the
James Bond novel “Licence to Kill”, when 007 seeks refuge on the island and calls Wolkowsky at his home in Key West to say, “David, it’s James, James Bond... I’ve broken into your
island. I hope you don’t mind.”
In addition to the main house and a guesthouse, Ballast Key features a number of smaller pavilions and its own desalination plant providing fresh drinking water. The main house comprises four bedrooms and a master suite. It spans three levels with a total interior of approx.
363 sqm. Sea views can be enjoyed from every single room in the property – including the
bathrooms. Built on stilted foundations, the wooden property on the southern tip of the island
is inspired by an old lighthouse on the Gulf of Mexico and designed in a “Conch House” style
so typical for the Florida Keys.
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ENGEL & VÖLKERS AG
Bettina Princess Wittgenstein
Head of Global Corporate Communication
Stadthausbrücke 5
20355 Hamburg
Germany
Phone: +49 40-36 13 11 20
Fax: 49 40-36 13 11 37
Bettina.Wittgenstein@engelvoelkers.com
About Engel & Völkers: Engel & Völkers is one of the world’s leading service companies specialised in the sale
and leasehold of premium residential property, commercial real estate and yachts. With its licence system, Engel
& Völkers is the only Germany-based firm to rank amongst the top 100 franchise companies in the world.*
Around 500 residential property shops specialised in high-class real estate and 44 commercial offices brokering
retail, office and industrial space, investment properties, multi-purpose apartment and office blocks and property
portfolios offer both private and institutional clients a professionally tailored range of services. Leasing, sales,
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currently operating in 37 countries on five continents. Intensive training schemes in its in-house real estate Academy and the high level of quality assurance governing its systematically structured service provision are key factors that account for the Company’s success. In 2012, Engel & Völkers was named the most valuable property
brand in Germany in the category “Property broker” by the European Society for Real Estate Brand Observation
(EUGIMB).
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