$12.25M sale in Florida’s yachting capital

An estate on the Intracoastal Waterway in the Las Olas section of Fort Lauderdale sold for $12.25 million, the highest-recorded sale in the area in eight years, according to the seller’s broker, Susan Rindley of One Sotheby’s International Realty.

“It was the hardest deal I’ve ever done,” Rindley told The Real Deal, adding that the seller, local real estate investor Tom Gonzales, nearly pulled out of the all-cash deal at the closing.

Originally listed for $20 million, the 19,000-square-foot property at 512 Seven Isles Rd. features 8 bedrooms, two pools and a spa, an 11-car garage, a five-bedroom guesthouse and a 595-foot marble dock, the primary lure for the buyers, an avid yachter family from Trinidad.

The family, whose names Rindley declined to disclose, decided to purchase the estate specifically for its waterfront.

“They weren’t even looking for a house, but the estate has some of the best dockage in town,” Rindley said. She partnered with Fort Lauderdale real estate and yacht broker Rebecca Riley of Anything on the Water, who sold the family a 110-foot Lazzara yacht.

The transaction, which closed on August 7, is one of the top three home sales in Broward County in the last six years and the highest-priced sale in Las Olas in over eight years, according to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Board of Realtors. — Emily Schmall