Sidney Ferenc, the co-founder of Applied Underwriters, sold his oceanfront Highland Beach mansion for $27.1 million.
Records show Ferenc sold the home at 2363 South Ocean Boulevard to the 23 Ocean Family Trust, with attorney M. Rahat Faderani signing on behalf of the buyer. The true buyer is unknown.
Nicholas Malinosky and Michael O’Connor with Douglas Elliman represented both the buyer and the seller.
In 1994, Ferenc co-founded Applied Underwriters, a global risk services firm now based in Omaha, Nebraska. He sold it to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in 2006 for an undisclosed price, and in 2019 his co-founder Steve Menzies and the Quasha Group bought it back from Buffett in a $920 million deal, according to published reports.
Ferenc bought the Highland Beach mansion for $11 million in 2014, according to property records. It was built in 2005 on 1 acre and spans 12,600 square feet, with six bedrooms, nine bathrooms, two half-bathrooms and a pool, records show. It also has 100 feet of oceanfront, a theater and a gym, according to the listing.
He listed it for $34 million in October, Zillow shows. Records show he closed on a home in Boca Raton for $6.3 million in November.
The South Ocean Boulevard mansion marks the latest pricey deal in Highland Beach this season. In March, Justin Gmelich, the co-chief investment officer of Millennium Management, was linked to the purchase of a $28.5 million oceanfront estate. Last month, a Texas businessman dropped $15 million on an oceanfront mansion, and a Philadelphia attorney sold a waterfront spec home for $14.9 million. The luxury enclave has seen record price growth in recent years, much like the rest of South Florida in the post-pandemic real estate boom. Last year, Steve Buchanan, the former owner of Buchanan Energy and Bucky’s Convenience Stores, sold his oceanfront estate for $50 million, making it Highland Beach’s most expensive home ever sold. He had bought it for $40 million just two years prior.
