That’s a wrap: After three months on the market, an oceanfront Palm Beach estate sold for $48.5 million to the inventor of the frozen burrito.
Records show Duane and Kelly Roberts bought the mansion at 1519 North Ocean Way from Edward Mulé. Dana Koch and Allison Wren with the Corcoran Group had the listing, and Tom Shaw with Sotheby’s International Realty brought the buyer.
Mulé, the founding partner and CEO of Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund Silver Point Capital, bought the mansion for $15 million in 2019. The 9,100-square-foot mansion was built in 1936 and has nine bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, one half-bathroom and a pool, according to records. The 1.8-acre oceanfront estate also has staff quarters and a music room, the listing shows.
Mulé listed it for $54.9 million in February, according to Zillow.
Records show Mulé’s address is 15 Dairy Road in Greenwich, Connecticut, a 16,400-square-foot mansion on 5.3 acres with an indoor pool and a theater. It has been on-and-off the market in recent years, asking as much as $35 million, according to Zillow.
The buyer of the Palm Beach house, Duane Roberts, is best known as the inventor of the frozen burrito. His father founded Butcher Boy Food Products, which supplied the first ever McDonald’s in San Bernardino, California with its burger meat. Butcher Boy sold to other early fast food chains, including Bob’s Big Boy and Mel’s Drive-In. After Roberts figured out how to freeze burritos and chimichangas, the company became better known for its Mexican food, according to published reports. The business grew to $80 million a year by the time he sold it in 1980, Roberts told the Orange County Register.
He has since started and sold a series of other food businesses, and got into the hospitality game. Roberts bought the historic Mission Inn Hotel & Spa in Riverside, California in 1992, according to the Los Angeles Times. It is famously where Richard and Pat Nixon got married, and where Ronald and Nancy Reagan honeymooned.
Roberts and his wife are longtime Laguna Beach, California residents. Kelly Roberts was President Donald Trump’s pick for ambassador to Slovenia, the First Lady’s home country, during Trump’s first administration. She later pulled herself out of the running, Politico reported.
They are the latest example of wealthy Californians crossing the country to move to Palm Beach. Their purchase is also one of the priciest closings so far this season. Last month, Andrew Farkas, chairman and CEO of Island Capital Group, sold his oceanfront mansion for $51.4 million. In March, billionaire Red Ventures co-founder and CEO Ric Elias sold his oceanfront estate for $73 million.
