Aviation mogul Robert G. Fessler sold his oceanfront Manalapan estate for $31.5 million, The Real Deal has learned.
Fessler sold the mansion at 880 South Ocean Boulevard, according to listing agents Antonio and Pascal Liguori with Premier Estate Properties. The Liguoris also represented the buyer in the deal. They declined to comment on the buyer’s identity and the deed has yet to appear in public records.
Fessler is an aviation executive with ties to several aftermarket aircraft products companies, including Magellan Aviation Group and Aeronautical Support International, according to records and published reports. He has also invested in other luxury residential properties in Palm Beach County over the years. In 2017, he sold a spec mansion in Palm Beach for $49 million, the Palm Beach Daily News reported.
Records show he and Daphne Fessler bought the Manalapan mansion for $5.3 million in 2000. Built in 1988, the 1.6-acre estate includes a 6,700-square-foot main house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms, according to property records. It also has a two-bedroom, two-bathroom guest house, the listing shows. The estate’s amenities include a theater, a pool, a dock and 150 feet of frontage on both the ocean and Intracoastal Waterway.
Fessler renovated the home in the 2000s, Antonio Liguori confirmed. He declined to comment on the buyer’s plans for the property, but said the adjacent estate sold as a teardown in 2023 for $37 million.
Fessler first listed the property for $45 million in 2024, and dropped the price to $38.5 million in February of last year, according to Zillow.
Liguori said there’s significant demand for the Manalapan market, but buyers are particularly focused on new construction homes, and sites and teardowns for building their own homes. Agents say ultra-luxury buyers like Manalapan for its larger lots, proximity to Palm Beach, and ocean-to-lake estates, which allow homeowners to have beach frontage as well as a personal dock on the Intracoastal Waterway.
“They love the fact that there are other high caliber billionaires that live in the neighborhood,” Liguori said.
Billionaire Larry Ellison set a record in 2022 when he bought a 16-acre oceanfront compound for $173 million. Ellison then dropped $277.4 million on the town’s Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa in 2024.
In other recent Manalapan deals, billionaire Randal Kirk found a buyer for his estate asking $90 million after a significant price cut.