Most expensive home in US has competition 3-house gated property in same compound goes on market
NAPLES, Fla. – A posh Port Royal compound in Naples, Florida, has made national headlines as the most expensive home for sale in America.
A story about the listing first appeared in the Wall Street Journal, offered up as an exclusive to the publication by the seller’s agents. News – and marketing – has spread since then to other national and local media.
The price tag for the property: $295 million. While it’s technically the most expensive listing for sale, there is another offering that could match it, with the combination of three other legacy properties that hit the market in the same neighborhood last year that would cost the same.
Known as Gordon Pointe, the gated compound stretches a little over 9 acres. It includes about 708 feet of beachfront and Gulf of Mexico views, 952 feet of bay views, an “exclusive and extremely rare” yacht basin, measuring 231 feet and a T-shaped dock for up to six boats.
There is not just one, but three houses on the property, built over time. There is also the potential to redevelop the site, with a larger family compound, or with a “subdivided community for a lucky few,” with at least six houses, according to the selling agents.
The property is currently owned by the Donahue family. A well-known Naples philanthropist, John F. “Jack” Donahue made his fortune running Pittsburgh-based Federated Investors, which he co-founded in 1955. He died in 2017; his wife, Rhodora, died in 2022. High school sweethearts, they started amassing the land in the 1980s, which is now in the hands of their many heirs. They had 13 children and more than 80 grandchildren.
In 2017, the Donahue family made headlines when they began exploring the sale of 70 acres of beachfront property on Gordon Pointe and nearby Keewaydin Island, sending out a
“This is probably one of the top two or three oceanfront properties in the whole state of Florida.”
Real estate agent
62-page confidential offering memo to prospects worldwide. The offering was unpriced, and it included only a portion of what the family owned on Gordon Pointe, with Jack and Rhodora still alive and wanting to keep and enjoy two of their residences at the time.
Robert McEwan, one of two agents marketing that property, said parts of the listing sold for more than $45 million in 2019. Several lots that didn’t go the last time around are part of the new offering, he said.
Asked how long he thought it might take to sell the new listing, bases on his own experience, McEwan said: “You never know with uber luxury things. A guy can see an article on it and come down and buy it right away.
These kinds of sales don’t happen very often, so there really is no history to go by, on what and when.”
There’s no question in his mind that the property will find a buyer, due to its secluded and scenic location at the end of Gordon Drive.
“It’s easy to love the property,” McEwan said. “I’ve been selling waterfront properties, land around Florida for 30plus years, and seen most of them. But this is probably one of the top two or three oceanfront properties in the whole state of Florida.”
Port Royal has long been known as a playground for the rich.
Nearly a year ago, a waterfront estate in the neighborhood came to market for more than $174 million. A price that was unheard of then. It’s still for sale.
The beachfront property, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, is expansive, stretching more than 8.5 acres, making it a rarity, too.
More of a rarity: Neighboring property is up for sale on both sides, with the potential to carve out an even larger one-of-kind estate on Naples’ highly coveted Gordon Drive. Combined, they would cost $295 million and span more than 15 acres, with 812 linear feet of beach frontage.
While ownership is under different names, an internet search reveals the three properties are tied to the DeGroote family. The family’s patriarch, Michael DeGroote Sr., a Canadian billionaire, entrepreneur and philanthropist, died in 2022.
Since Hurricane Ian, Naples has seen other trophy properties come to market at eye-popping prices.
The uber-luxury home market wasn’t as hot last year, as it was in 2022.
However, 2023 still brought a few whopping sales.
The most expensive home sold last year fetched $46.8 million – also in Port Royal. The purchase price for the furnished single-family estate was the highest ever paid for an off-beach residential property in the neighborhood, and all of Collier County.
Collier County’s record home price still stands at $62 million – set in 2022.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the current U.S. home sale record was set in 2019 for a penthouse purchased by Citadel’s Ken Griffin on Billionaires’ Row in Manhattan. He paid $240 million.