Mark Bellissimo’s ex-wife sells Wellington equestrian estate for $22M

Developer Mark Bellissimo’s ex-wife, Katherine Kaneb, sold her Wellington equestrian estate to another horse world player for $21.9 million.

Records show Kaneb, formerly Katherine Bellissimo, sold the nearly 20-acre estate at 13893 Gracida Street to Maharshi Properties LLC. 

Maria Mendelsohn of Douglas Elliman had the listing, and Rodolfo Maya of Illustrated Properties brought the buyer.

The Maharshi Properties entity owns three Wellington properties they bought for a combined $5.6 million in 2009 and 2011, records show. Three horses died in a fire at Serenity Show Farm Stables in 2019, the Palm Beach Post reported. 

Kaneb is an equestrian and executive. Her ex-husband is the developer leading a star-studded group of investors in a massive mixed-use project dubbed the Wellington. Bellissimo is seeking a rezoning for the project, which is slated for a vote later this month. An investment partner on the project, billionaire Tavistock Group founder Joe Lewis, was recently indicted on insider trading charges. 

Before Kaneb and Bellissimo split in 2019, they were perhaps the most powerful couple in the American horse world. The couple owned and managed the Colorado Horse Park in Parker, Colorado; the International Polo Club and Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington; and Tryon International Equestrian Center at Tryon Resort in Mill Spring, North Carolina. They also bought the Chronicle of the Horse, a preeminent equestrian magazine. 

Bellissimo sold the International Polo Club to the U.S. Polo Association for $95 million in June of last year. He sold the 160-acre Palm Beach International Equestrian Center, which hosts the Winter Equestrian Festival, to Andreas Helgstrand’s Global Equestrian Group for an undisclosed amount in 2021, Dressage News reported. Helgstrand also bought the Chronicle of the Horse in 2022, Eurodressage reported. In October, Horse Sport reported Bellissimo sold the Colorado Horse Park for an undisclosed amount.

Kaneb won the Gracida Street equestrian estate in the divorce, records show. The 19.7-acre estate includes a three-bedroom, three-bathroom house built in 2015, a one-bedroom, one-bathroom guest house with a gym, and a pool. The property has two barns totaling 36 horse stalls, three training arenas, a utility building and staff apartments above the main barn, the listing shows. The listing also advertises “more than enough green space” to build a home on the estate.

Kaneb and Bellissimo bought the property for $6.3 million in 2013, records show. Kaneb listed it for $28 million in 2021, Redfin shows. 

Mendelsohn, who also brokered the sale of Sheila C. Johnson’s Wellington estate for $21.7 million in May, said the Gracida Street property is a rarity in Wellington because of its size and proximity to the equestrian festival grounds. 

“You don’t normally get so much land,” she said. “People are staying in Wellington for the horse show much longer than they used to. They want more of a compound because they’re here longer.”

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the owners of Maharshi Properties LLC.