Ex-PepsiCo CFO Robert Dettmer Sells Palm Beach Home for $16M

Former PepsiCo CFO Robert Dettmer sold his Palm Beach home for $15.5 million.

Records show Dettmer sold the non-waterfront house at 309 Chapel Hill Road to a trust named for the address and managed by Ryan Wilson. The true buyer is unknown.

Linda Olsson of Linda R. Olsson had the listing, and Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate brought the buyer.

Dettmer was a longtime executive at the Harrison, New York-based food and beverage giant PepsiCo. He held various leadership positions with Pepsi beginning in 1973, rising to the role of CFO in 1986. Dettmer left the post in 1996, moving to become a member of the board of directors of Valero Energy, from which he retired in 2003, according to a press release. 

Another PepsiCo alum, John Sculley, bought the house neighboring his home in Palm Beach’s North End for $11.4 million in May. Sculley was president of PepsiCo and creator of the Pepsi Challenge,  before taking the reins as Apple’s CEO from 1983 to 1993. 

Dettmer bought the Chapel Hill Road home in 2010 for $4.4 million, records show. Built in 1981 on 0.3 acres, the 4,500-square-foot home has four bedrooms, four bathrooms and one half-bathroom, according to property records. The house also has a pool and a courtyard at its center.

Dettmer listed the home for $16 million in June, Redfin shows. 

Other recent sales in Palm Beach have shown comparable price growth for non-waterfront homes on the island. In September, Jane Baird and her husband, Girard Polk Brownlow III, sold their non-waterfront home for $14 million. The couple bought the 3,600-square-foot house for $4.1 million in 2013, and listed it for $14.9 million in April. 

That same month, sports investor and RedBird Capital founder Gerry Cardinale bought a non-waterfront teardown for $20 million. The seller, Kathleen Belznak, bought the house for $1.2 million in 1993, and listed it for $23.5 million in June. 
The Palm Beach market has softened following a cooldown of the hot pandemic era. Still, limited inventory is maintaining prices well above pre-pandemic levels. Agents say they anticipate a busy winter season, which is expected to pick up after Thanksgiving.