David Steward II, the son of billionaire tech entrepreneur David Steward, dropped $17 million for a horse farm in Wellington’s Grand Prix Farms community, according to property records.
The younger Steward, CEO of Lion Forge Entertainment, purchased the 7.82-acre double lot at 3351 Grand Prix Farms Drive from a company tied to Darin S. Goldstein, who owned the property for decades.
Records show Goldstein paid $480,000 for the property in 1999, and the sale represents a 3,442 percent gain in value. The last asking price was just under $18 million. Ryan Beckett with BitRealty represented the seller, and Robert Scott Fitton with Engel & Volkers Wellington worked with the buyer.
Beckett said the farm is one of the larger properties in Grand Prix Farms, a coveted equestrian enclave near Wellington International showgrounds. The spread includes 38 horse stalls, staff housing, a manager’s residence, groom’s quarters, a covered six-horse hot walker, a grass Grand Prix field and a large sand jumping ring. Goldstein built the farm in 2002, according to Beckett, and records show a manure bin and horse walker were added in 2006 and 2008.
The farm’s 38 stalls generated seasonal rental income during the Winter Equestrian Festival, leasing for between $23,000 and $25,000 per stall, Beckett said. Steward rented the facility for a season before deciding to buy it.
Beckett said Goldstein sold the property after relocating to Europe and stepping back from competitive riding. Her husband works as a horse dealer there, and she turned her attention to producing equestrian commentary content on YouTube.
Fitton, who represented Steward, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Steward’s father, who hails from St. Louis, has amassed a $12.4 billion fortune, according to Forbes. He founded World Wide Technology, an IT provider that generates roughly $20 billion in annual revenue and counts Citi, Verizon and the federal government among its clients. Forbes ranks Steward as the second-richest Black billionaire, behind Palantir CEO Alexander Karp, who is of mixed race.
Steward leads St. Louis-based Lion Forge Entertainment, an animation and live-action studio he co-founded with Carl Reed in 2019. The company focuses on amplifying underrepresented voices and producing inclusive, culturally authentic stories for global audiences, according to its website.
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