It’s been less than than two weeks of the Winter Equestrian Festival, but deals are already closing.
A company tied to Campbell’s Soup heiress Mary Alice Malone paid $17.1 million to buy a corner piece of land on a block she is slowly taking over in Wellington, a wealthy community of horse enthusiasts, home to the families of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Frank McCourt and others.
Records show Malone’s Meinse LLC bought the two parcels at 4100 and 4158 South Shore Boulevard from Glenshore LLC and Palm Beach Equestrian Inc., entities controlled by Carlos and Thomas Morrison of West Palm Beach. The Morrisons have sold their land to the Campbell’s billionaire before.
Malone, the granddaughter of Campbell’s Soup founder John Dorrance, is the company’s largest shareholder – in addition to being an equestrian enthusiast. She’s worth an estimated $4.1 billion, according to Forbes.
This latest purchase adds 29.8 acres to Malone’s equestrian assemblage. She now controls more than 95 acres between South Shore Boulevard and 128th Terrace, and between 40th Street South and Indian Mound Road, and spent more than $46.4 million on them, including this latest deal.
The corner property, at 4100 South Shore Boulevard, totals 19.35 acres and the other is 10.45 acres. They last sold for a combined $1.52 million between 1997 and 1998.
Wellington is known as an international center for equestrian sports, and is home to a number of high-end equestrian estates. The city plays host to a number of horse races and championships, including the Winter Equestrian Festival — a 12-week international competition that started Jan. 11. It also garnered national attention when fellow billionaire Bill Gates spent $38 million buying up an enclave nearby.
Malone also owns the 1,000-acre Iron Spring Farm, a horse breeding and training business in Pennsylvania.
Here’s a map of what she now owns in Wellington:
Malone’s properties outlined in red