BET co-founder Robert Johnson has built a new $20 million mansion at the Old Palm Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens.
Records show a Delaware LLC purchased the home at 12236 Tillinghast Circle from Myron “Mosie” Miller and his wife, Michelle Miller. Listing agent Vince Marotta of Illustrated Properties confirmed the buyer was Johnson. Blair Kirwan and Brown Harris Stevens brought in buyers.
Mosie Miller is a local spec developer and son of Robert Miller who owns the Jupiter Pointe Club and Marina.
Johnson co-founded BET in 1979 with then-wife Sheila Johnson. The couple sold the network to Viacom for $3 billion in 2001 and have since become America’s first black billionaires. After their split in 2002, their billionaire status plummeted. Sheila Johnson went on to found Salamander Hotels and Resorts, while Robert Johnson was CEO of BET until 2006.
Robert Johnson also bought a majority stake in the Charlotte Bobcats in 2002, making him the first black-majority team owner in a major U.S. sports league, according to the New York Times. He sold his stake in the Bobcats to basketball legend Michael Jordan in 2010 for $275 million, according to ESPN.
Johnson and Jordan remain friends, Marotta said. According to Marotta, Johnson wanted to be close to Jordan, who lived at the Jupiter Bear Club, but didn’t want to get too close, so he took him to Old Palms Golf Club.
The Millers bought the one-acre Tillinghast Circle home in December 2021 for $10 million, records show. Built in 2011, the 13,600-square-foot mansion has five bedrooms, six bathrooms, and one-and-a-half bathrooms, according to property records.
Miller commissioned Roger Janssen of Dailley Janssen Architects in West Palm Beach, interior designer Tamara Magel and Lavelle Construction to completely renovate the home. Marotta said he listed the mansion early in the renovation process for $20 million, a price Johnson agreed to buy before the demolition was complete.
The latest sale is just shy of the Old Palms Golf Club price record set in July with the sale of a two-lot mansion for $22.5 million.
Miller also has a Palm Beach mansion on the market. He’s asking $79 million for the waterfront estate at 149 East Inlet Drive, with Lawrence Moens acting as the listing agent. He also bought the Palm Beach Gardens mansion in August for $11 million. Miller originally planned to relist the home for $13.9 million, but has since been renting it out short-term.
“He makes $30 a weekend,” Marotta said.
According to Marotta, Miller’s latest sale at Old Palms Golf Club is indicative of the luxury boom in northern Palm Beach County.
“Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens [are] Be a really sexy address,” he said.
Residential brokerages are catching up to the growing luxury market and opening offices accordingly. Compass, Agency and Corcoran all opened Palm Beach Gardens offices in the last year.
