By Darrell Hofheinz - Daily News Real Estate Writer

The longtime lakefront home of the late real estate investor and philanthropist Robert Bob Gordon and his wife, Arlette, has changed hands for $7.8 million, according to the price recorded Wednesday on the warranty deed filed with the Palm Beach County Clerks office.

Palm Beachers Abe and Giovana Haruvi bought the five-bedroom house at 980 N. Lake Way, which was last marketed at $11.9 million, said Scott M. Gordon of Fite Shavell & Associates. Gordon listed the house for his parents and is the only one of the couples three sons to have lived there while growing up.

Although the Haruvis are just finishing work on an 11,000-square-foot, seven-bedroom custom home at 112 Via Palma, the deal for the North Lake Way house was just too good to pass up, said Abe Haruvi, a real estate investor who owns a number of properties in Palm Beach County and New York City.

We always wanted to be on the water, Haruvi said. This was an opportunity I couldnt resist. Were very excited about the house.

With a little more than 12,000 square feet of living space inside and out, the home on North Lake Way had at one point in early 2010 been listed for nearly $17 million but never sold. Bob Gordon had taken it off the market for much of last season, his son said.

He loved that house and didnt really want to sell it, Scott Gordon said, explaining that by setting such a high price and refusing to negotiate, his father could sell it but not sell it.

After his father died in May, Scott Gordon put the house back on the market with an asking price of $13.9 million.

Abe Haruvi said he and his wife plan to renovate the house and live there. The couple meanwhile recently listed the other house on Via Palma for sale at $7.95 million with agents Paulette and Dana Koch of the Corcoran Group. The Haruvis also own another Palm Beach home at 129 Woodbridge Road, as well as one in Wellington.

With 155 feet of lakefront, the North Lake Way house was designed by Ames Bennett and built in 1962 by the late developer Robert Gottfried in his signature Palm Beach Regency style on a lot that stands five streets north of the Palm Beach Country Club.

The Gordons bought the house in the early 1970s when Bob Gordon expanded his development interests into South Florida from Boston, according to a 2010 article about the house in the Shiny Sheet.

My wife and I went down to Key West, stopping along the way, looking for a place to live. And then we arrived in Palm Beach, Bob Gordon said in the article.

When the real estate agent opened the front door and the couple looked straight through the house to the lakefront, Bob Gordon was sold: I remember that like it was yesterday. I said, Thats where the boat is going to go.

After the Gordons moved in, they added a dock, which was replaced in 2009. Over the years, the Gordons carried out a variety of renovation projects, including an addition on the north side of the house. The layout includes a grand foyer, a great room, a conservatory-style sun room, a billiards room, a sauna and a staff suite. Outside are fountains, gardens, patios, a loggia and a slat house.

Arlette Gordon, meanwhile, has bought a condominium in the Palm Beach Biltmore. She was represented in the transaction by her son, who said the deal would close this week.

Bob Gordon developed a variety of apartment buildings between Boca Raton and Miami. Most recently, he joined his son, Lee Gordon, in developing three spec homes since sold by son Scott on the island with George L. Ford III of Leeds Custom Design in West Palm Beach.