By Jose Lambiet, GossipExtra.com, for SouthFloridaReporter.com, July 9, 2015 – NANTUCKET — Palm Beach philanthropists Mark and Mary Freitas have encountered a rough financial patch in their summer hangout of Nantucket.
Their breathtaking island home on the famous Massachusetts summer resort town was foreclosed on, and it’s being sold on the proverbial courthouse steps.
Earlier this year, Freitas tried to get rid of it quickly in a short sale.
But the $6.8 million price tag, Nantucket’s highest ever short sale, didn’t grab anybody.
Records show Freitas bought the 5,200-square-foot cottage at 24 Pocomo Road for $9 million in 2005. The property includes 7 acres of land overlooking the entire island and the Atlantic.
Mark Freitas is an insurance company owner who, with long-time Palm Beach socialite Mary Fairbanks, is among the most visible winter black-tie charity gala goers.
He is a major supporter of Best Buddies International and the Palm Beach Police Foundation, and until recently sat on the board of West Palm Beach’s Kravis Center For The Performing Arts.
In Palm Beach, the couple owns 201 El Vedado Road, one of the island’s prized homes.
Records show the couple took out a $2 million-second mortgage on the house recently. The stately manor, estimated to be worth $10 million by the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office, is now mortgaged to the tune of $8 million.
Freitas made tabloid news in the mid-2000s when he dated Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.
