The former co-CEO of the multi-level marketing giant Amway sold his Wellington estate for $12.5 million.
Steve Van Andel sold the 59-acre equestrian estate at 4381 South Road for $211,864 per acre, records show. Romain Marteau and Brianne Goutal-Marteau, a champion show jumper in Wellington, bought the property.
The equestrian estate includes a single-family home totaling 3,230 square feet with three bedrooms and six bathrooms. In addition, the large estate has a 24-stall barn, two tack rooms, laundry room, four grooming and wash racks, and large hay or storage room.
The property was previously listed for $22.5 million in 2017, records show. Van Andel bought the site in 1994 for $525,000.
The Marteaus secured a $8.8 million loan from Florida Federal Land Bank Association to buy the estate, records show.
Steve Van Andel’s father, Jay, founded Amway in Michigan in 1959 with Rich DeVos. The company started out selling organic cleaning products and later added dietary supplements, according to the news publication MLive. Steve Van Andel retired from the company in 2018.
The Van Andel family is a fixture in western Michigan, especially in Grand Rapids. The family has donated millions for buildings that bear their names, including the Van Andel Arena. Amway also has the naming rights to the NBA’s Orlando Magic basketball arena in Orlando, called the Amway Center.
Wellington is known as the winter equestrian capital of the world and is home to a number of second homes for high level corporate executives and celebrities.
In May, Andrey Borodin, a billionaire Russian exile paid $23 million for a massive equestrian compound in at 4370 South Road Wellington that was once home to the Lechuza Caracas polo team.
In 2018, Billy Joel paid $3.5 million for a five-acre horse ranch in Wellington for his fourth wife, Alexis Roderick, an experienced equestrian. In 2017, a company tied to billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, spent $8.25 million for land next to her Wellington estate.