For a shining moment in time, as Bob Plunket wrote when the rock ‘n’ roll legend Mick Jagger bought a home there, Lakewood Ranch was “officially validated as the coolest place in town,” despite its decidedly staid style. How funky can a master-planned community get, after all? 

Well, apparently it was the fortress Jagger, 79, his girlfriend Melanie Hamrick, 36, and their 6-year-old son, Deveraux, needed.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Melanie Hamrick (@melhamrick)

“Security is always the No. 1 issue,” says Christine Spelman of Re/Max Alliance Group, who is representing the couple in the sale. She says that when the address was leaked after Jagger and Hamrick bought the house, “there was a frenzy of people out front taking pictures and others would come right up to the door to knock. They still receive lots of fan mail there, too, because when you Google him, this address comes up.” 

Now the house is on the market for $3,499,000.

Located in The Lake Club—already a gated community—the couple added an extra security gate around the home, which is surrounded by water on both sides. They also installed security cameras and a lush layer of landscaping around the perimeter of grounds, which blocks gawkers and paparazzi. The home is across the street from a park, and an added bonus is it has just one neighbor who happens to be a retired police officer, says Spelman. 

So that answers the often-asked question of why Jagger and Hamrick didn't buy a waterfront home like the other celebrity rockers who live here: there's also no public water access and potential invasions of privacy by boat. 

Spelman knows the home well, and checks on it since the couple spends a lot of time in Europe. She gathers their mail and makes sure there are no squatters “like David Letterman had,” she says. She's a friend of the family on Hamrick’s side—Hamrick's mother lives in Bradenton—and she also represented Jagger and Hamrick in the purchase of the home back in 2020, which they viewed via Facetime. They didn't look at any other properties in the area and bought it for $1.98 million.

So why are they selling? Business is taking them to New York City more these days, Spelman says, and “it’s a big house to sit idle."

Right now, that business includes a book tour. Retired ballerina Hamrick, who spent ​​15 years with the American Ballet Theater, is blazing a new path with her first book, First Position. Laced with sex, drugs and ballet, it’s a story about the life of Sylvie, a ballerina whose career is derailed by a scandalous affair with her company's assistant director. She is blamed for the fallout and her reputation is destroyed. Still, despite any potential similarities to her own life, in a recent interview with People Magazine, Hamrick insisted the book is “definitely fiction.”

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Melanie Hamrick (@melhamrick)

She went on to say when Covid hit and the theaters shut down, her career in ballet and choreography wasn’t an option anymore. And with the purchase of the home in 2020, she may well have penned some of the book's sultry scenes in Lakewood Ranch.

Meanwhile, according to Jagger's Instagram account, we know he signed off on some creative Rolling Stones logos and spent some quality time with a gray-and-white cat hanging out in the home's backyard lanai last year. (The feline’s name remains confidential, but Jagger is known to love cats.)

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Mick Jagger (@mickjagger)

The starry nature of its residents is cause for loads of interest in the home, of course. Spelman is screening a lot of mock buyers who simply want to tour it for bragging rights, but “real buyers don’t care about all that,” she says.

Some even say they’ll offer full price if they can meet the Rolling Stones frontman, but “that's never happening,” she says.

What is happening is that the home is attracting buyers looking for something unique. Built in 2008, the home is custom Rutenberg—a.k.a. AR Homes—and the two-story, four-bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom home has a bell tower and a private staircase to the primary suite. There's also a study, a great room, a den, and an expansive media room with a full wet bar and a full bath. There are three balconies, a screened lanai, a fireplace and an outdoor kitchen. Plus, of course, that full stealth-level privacy.

When Jagger and Hamrick bought it, the home had lots of dark wood. They hired two interior designers to lighten things up. “They’re not ostentatious,” Spelman says—but they did put $300,000 toward security and renovations that included adding extra doors for more closed-off spaces, the antithesis to the open floor plan trend that seems to be all the rage right now.

In another recent interview published in U.K.-based Times, Hamrick said she and Jagger like the “full nomad” lifestyle, which isn’t too challenging: Jagger’s real estate portfolio includes addresses in London, France, Sicily, Mustique Island and New York City.

Still, does all this mean potential Jagger sightings for locals have been quashed?

Maybe not. The family they moved here to be close to is still here. "They'll be back," Spelman says.