Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

Patrice Wynmore Flynn has listed her estate with international real estate broker Newmark Knight Frank.

The 1,600-acre Errol Flynn estate in Port Antonio is on the market for US$50 million (J$3.6 billion), Wednesday Business has learned.

The property, which is now owned by Flynn's widow Patrice Wymore Flynn, is being offered to potential investors by the firm Newmark Knight Frank as a prime resort development opportunity.

The Newmark team marketing the property is led by senior managing director Kenneth Zakin.

The company headquartered in New York is one of the largest independent real estate service firms in the world. Alongside its London-based partner Knight Frank Newmark, the firm operates from about 165 offices on six continents.

Last year, Newmark cobbled deals valued at US$37 billion, which grossed US$537 million in revenue.

The Flynn property links the foothills of the island's Blue Mountain range to 3.5 miles of coastline on the Caribbean Sea, inclusive of long stretches of pasture.

Property features

The waterfront is accented by cove beaches, coral caves and bluffs.

Newmark's spiel highlights the property's elevations ranging from 200 feet to 1,000 feet and its unobstructed panoramic views as selling points for the property.

Errol Flynn was at one time a legendary Hollywood actor who fell in love with Portland, after he was accidentally ejected onto its shores when his yacht ran aground during a hurricane in the 1940s.

That real life story was as romantic as the roles the swashbuckling Flynn played in his movies, and tourism marketers have long milked it as a selling point to entice tourists here.

Errol Flynn (1909-1959) - File photos

Flynn, who was Australian by birth, invested his monies in a cattle and coconut farm that stretched along six miles of coastline at Port Antonio, Portland's capital.

He bought the nearby Titchfield Hotel where he was known to constantly entertain other big names in film such as Noel Coward, Katherine Hepburn, Sir Laurence Olivier, and author Ian Fleming.

Flynn later won the picturesque Navy Island, sitting just off the coast of his hotel, in a boozy dice game.

The island has reverted to government ownership, held under the portfolio of assets controlled by the state-run Port Authority of Jamaica.

Wymore Flynn still resides at the estate she shared with her late husband, who passed away in 1959 at age 50.

Big investment

Zakin is also using as a selling point for the estate the early moves being made by other investors who have similarly acquired property in Portland in anticipation that, eventually, government will invest in the kind of infrastructure that would position the sleepy town as a premier spot for tourists.

Big name investors include billionaire Michael Lee Chin and hotelier Gordon Butch Stewart.

The Port Authority has also constructed a mega yacht marina and boatyard there in the hunt for big spending clientele.

"The stunning beauty of both the town and the surrounding marvels are being rediscovered - opening up an outstanding opportunity for prime resort development on the Errol Flynn estate," said Zakin.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com