Resi roundup: Farming equipment heiress, Nashville honky-tonk owners buy South Florida homes

It’s the busy season for luxury real estate in South Florida, and deals are closing across the region.

Single-family homes and condos sold from Miami Beach to Palm Beach, with prices ranging from $7.1 million to $13 million. Buyers and sellers included an heiress to an agricultural equipment fortune, financiers, former self-storage moguls and the owners of an iconic Nashville honky tonk.

Palm Beach

In Palm Beach, an heiress to a farming equipment fortune bought a North End home for $13 million. Candida Burnap bought the house at 271 La Puerta Way from Jack and Cheryl Fockler, records show. 

Suzanne Frisbie of the Corcoran Group had the listing, and Ashley McIntosh of Douglas Elliman brought the buyer.

Burnap is the daughter of the late rancher Richard Ely Danielson, Jr., who was at one point the largest producer of lemons in California. His father,  Richard Ely Danielson, was the publisher and editor of the Atlantic. His great-grandfather, William Deering, along with Cyrus Hall McCormick, Jr. and J.P. Morgan, co-founded the International Harvester Corporation, one of the earliest American manufacturers of mechanical farming equipment. 

Jack Fockler is a senior advisor at Royce & Associates, an investment management firm in New York City. He and Cheryl Fockler bought the La Puerta Way home for $6.9 million in 2020, records show. Built in 2007 on 0.3 acres, the 4,600-square-foot house has six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, one half-bathroom and a pool, property records show. 

The Focklers listed the home for $15 million in October, Redfin shows. 

Weston

Financier Michael Zager sold his Weston mansion for $7.1 million. 

Records show Zager and his wife, Lainie Zager, sold the house at 2750 Hackney Road to Isaac Ullatil and Neeraj Isaac. 

Jason Kapit of Keller Williams had the listing. 

Ullatil and Isaac are a married couple and the cofounders of Hallmark Health Care Solutions, a health tech firm based in Hauppauge, New York. 

Zager is a managing partner at Z Wealth Solutions, a financial services firm based in Fort Lauderdale. He and his wife bought the Weston property for $690,000 in 2010. They built the 8,000-square-foot mansion on 1.4 acres in 2012, records show. The home has six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, one half-bathroom and a pool, the listing shows. 

The Zagers are building a new home in Fort Lauderdale on a 1.5-acre waterfront estate, according to property records. They bought the land at 76 Isla Bahia Drive for $4.2 million in 2021, records show. 

Fort Lauderdale

In Fort Lauderdale, Nashville honky-tonk owners, Steve and Leah Smith, bought a waterfront house for $8.2 million.

Records show the Smiths bought the house at 1601 Southeast 8th Street from J. Frank Barefield, Jr. 

James Morlock of Fidelity Real Estate had the listing, and Deborah Goedde and James Balarillo of Metro Premier Properties brought the buyers.

The Smiths own Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, a famous Nashville honky-tonk bar once frequented by Willie Nelson. They also own Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk and Rock & Roll Steakhouse. 

Barefield is president of Abbey Residential, a Birmingham, Alabama-based multifamily firm with apartments in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Texas. He bought the Southeast 8th Street house for $6.8 million in 2021, records show. Built in 2002 on 0.4 acres, the house spans 6,800 square feet, with five bedrooms, five bathrooms and one half-bathroom, according to property records. The property has 250 feet of waterfront, a pool and a dock. 

Barefield listed the house for $11.9 million in April, Redfin shows. 

Miami Beach

Former self-storage mogul, Oswell Dean Jernigan, sold his 57 Ocean condo in Miami Beach for $8.8 million.

Jernigan and his wife, Kristi Jernigan, sold unit 303 in the 18-story, 69-unit oceanfront building at 5775 Collins Avenue to Desiree Beach LLC, a Florida entity managed by Mark Castellano of New Jersey. 

Julian Johnston and Lily Zanardi of the Corcoran Group had the listing, and Pietro Belmonte of Douglas Elliman brought the buyer.

Jernigan founded Jernigan Capital, a Memphis-based self-storage REIT, in 2014. He sold it to NexPoint Advisors for $900 million in 2020. He and Kristi Jernigan bought the condo for $5.4 million in 2021, the year that billionaire Brazilian developer Jose Isaac Peres’ Multiplan completed 57 Ocean. The 2,800-square-foot unit has four bedrooms, four bathrooms and one half-bathroom. 
The Jernigans listed the condo for $9.5 million in October, according to Redfin. In 2021, they sold a waterfront Venetian Islands home for $18.4 million. Records show they bought a 4,600-square-foot Miami home for $5.5 million in September.