WeatherTech founder David MacNeil dropped another $55.5 million on oceanfront property in Manalapan.
Developer Joe Farrell sold the incomplete 1.6-acre spec estate at 1140 South Ocean Boulevard, according to the Multiple Listing Service. Margit Brandt with Premier Estate Properties represented both the buyer and the seller in the deal, and confirmed the closing. She declined to comment on their identities.
The Wall Street Journal first tied MacNeil to the purchase in March. It brings his total amount spent in Manalapan to $96 million.
MacNeil bought the adjacent 2-acre estate at 1120 South Ocean Boulevard for $38.5 million in May of last year. The acquisition followed shortly after he sold an oceanfront mansion in Fort Lauderdale for $40 million, which was at the time the most expensive home ever sold in the city.
MacNeil then demolished the 10,300-square-foot mansion on the Manalapan estate, which was built in 1955 and designed by John Volk, who was a celebrated early architect in Palm Beach and the surrounding area.
Farrell, a longtime developer in the Hamptons, bought the estate at 1140 South Ocean Boulevard for $32.5 million last year. His plans for the property included a 19,000-square-foot, nine-bedroom main house; a 4,000-square-foot, four-bedroom guest house; an eight-car garage; two pools and a pickleball court. He listed it for $95 million in August.
MacNeil bought the estate incomplete, and Brandt declined to comment on MacNeil’s plans for the two properties. Combined, they span 3.6 ocean-to-Intracoastal acres and nearly 350 feet of beachfront.
In South Florida’s post-pandemic real estate boom, Manalapan has emerged as an epicenter of ultra-luxury deals. Long overshadowed by its better known neighbor, Palm Beach, it has attracted big name buyers at never before seen prices. Billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison dropped a record $173 million on a 16-acre oceanfront estate in 2022, then another $277.4 million on the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa in August.
Agents are saying buyers like Manalapan for its large properties, which often span from the Atlantic Ocean to the Intracoastal Waterway, and are in close proximity to President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club at the South End of Palm Beach. Brandt said only a handful of oceanfront estates over 2 acres exist in Palm Beach, and none are for sale (officially, at least). That’s why Manalapan is so hot, and why she expects prices to keep climbing, she said.
“I genuinely believe Manalapan is undervalued,” Brandt said.
