An entity tied to an Ohio-based, family-owned retail real estate development company dropped $26 million on a lakefront mega mansion in Stone Creek Ranch, a gated community in Delray Beach.
Records show a trust managed by WMCF LLC, an Ohio corporation, bought the house at 9200 Rockybrook Way from HH Delray LLC, a Delaware entity. The selling LLC is managed by a Connecticut woman named Janet Vargas, but the true seller is unknown.
Senada Adzem of Douglas Elliman represented both the buyer and the seller in the deal. Adzem declined to comment on the deal.
The buyer’s entity is registered to the address of retail developer Cafaro’s headquarters in Niles, Ohio. Cafaro has developed more than 30 million square feet of retail across 14 states, according to its website. The firm was started by William M. Cafaro, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of American malls. His New York Times obituary from 1998 called him, “an entrepreneur who turned a 1940’s investment in a property in Youngstown, Ohio, into one of the nation’s biggest real estate development companies,” and noted he died at his office.
The company is currently run by his grandsons, co-presidents William A. Cafaro and Anthony Cafaro, Jr.
Records show the seller’s entity bought the Stone Creek Ranch mansion for $17 million in 2020. Built in 2017, the 17,800-square-foot mega mansion spans seven bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and two half-bathrooms.
The 2.7-acre lakefront property also includes a 170,000-gallon saltwater pool, a guest house, tennis court, gym with sauna and massage facilities, and a 4,000-square-foot entertainment space with a movie theater, game room and wet bar. The home also comes with a catering kitchen in addition to its standard kitchen, a wine room, and a cigar lounge connected to the office by a secret passage.
The estate’s designers commissioned a feng shui master to achieve “optimal energy flow” in the outdoor spaces, according to the listing.
The gated Stone Creek Ranch community was completed in 2019. It spans a total of 187 acres, and includes 37 2.5-acre estates. It has attracted a number of high-profile buyers over the years, including Steven Cohen, billionaire owner of the New York Mets, who paid $21.6 million for an estate in 2021.
Hewlett Packard CEO Antonio Neri bought a mansion in the community for $7.5 million in 2019.
The luxury market in Delray Beach is holding onto its pandemic price growth, despite a recent dip in sales volume across South Florida. In February, a local real estate investor bought a Delray Beach mansion across from the Atlantic Ocean for $22 million.