A Mediterranean-inspired, gulf-front behemoth in Belleair Beach, complete with a lazy-river pool, bowling alley and roughly 200 feet of private sand, is back on the market with a price tag in the mid eight figures. The private three-story compound spreads over more than an acre and feels more like a boutique resort than a typical single-family home. Locals have long dubbed it the “Sandcastle on the Gulf.”
According to Realtor.com, the property at 1700 Gulf Boulevard measures about 19,578 square feet, with 10 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms on roughly 1.17 acres. The MLS entry (TB8438533) shows the active listing in the mid-$30-million range, and public records on that page list an estimated annual tax bill near $259,568.
What $35 Million Buys
The listing reads like a billionaire’s wish list: a resort-style pool with a lazy river and grotto, a home theater, a temperature-controlled wine room and a full bowling alley, plus two high-end kitchens and multiple service areas. As listed on Compass, the sale also includes a separate guest house of more than 5,000 square feet and a seven-car garage.
From Ballplayer to Investor
The house was originally built for former Philadelphia Phillies slugger Ryan Howard and later sold in 2019 to investor Ben Mallah for $16.5 million, a transaction that drew national attention at the time, according to Forbes. Since then, Mallah has marketed the spread as a legacy beachfront compound that spans three contiguous lots.
Coverage this spring has cited slightly different price points. The Tampa Bay Times ran a photo feature pegging the asking price at $35 million, while public MLS pages show the active entry trimmed to about $34 million in recent updates on Compass. Those kinds of fine-tuning moves are standard as agents test demand for trophy properties in the Tampa Bay market.
As reported by St. Pete Catalyst, the estate is officially registered as “Sandcastle on the Gulf,” and its three-lot shoreline footprint is one big reason local writeups label the property “irreplaceable.” That mix of acreage and private beach frontage is rare on Pinellas County’s barrier-island strip.
The public MLS listing credits Priscilla Pesce of Charles Rutenberg Realty as the listing agent and features an extensive photo gallery plus a virtual tour for anyone tracking major local sales. Whether a buyer steps up at the $30-plus-million mark or the price gets trimmed again, the Sandcastle on the Gulf has already cemented its status as one of the most talked-about trophies in Pinellas luxury real estate.
