Larry Ellison and WeatherTech’s David MacNeil split the Manalapan lot next door, then kept buying

The house is not the story. The lot line is.

On a barrier island measured in contiguous ocean-to-lake feet, Larry Ellison and David MacNeil did not buy adjectives. They bought the neighbor parcel that kills a speculative megamansion and extends two compounds that already price privacy by assembly. Then both kept buying.

The money

Ellison paid an MLS-reported $34.4M for the southern 2.15 acres of 1960 S. Ocean Blvd in Manalapan, with 200 feet of waterfront on both the ocean and the Intracoastal (Palm Beach Daily News via The Boca Raton Tribune). PBDN calls it a just-closed deal, and The Real Deal says Ellison closed on it, but as of Oct. 18 the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser still lists the whole 3.93-acre parcel as owned by 1960 S OCEAN BLVD LLC, whose latest posted sale is a March 11, 2024 warranty deed at $27,500,000; no 2026 transfer to Ellison, MacNeil or any entity has posted, so the price stays MLS-reported (Property Appraiser). His south-end holdings now top 24 acres: the 15.65-acre estate at 2000 S. Ocean Blvd and 6.79 acres on an island in the Intracoastal west of it, which he bought together for a recorded $173M in June 2022 from a trust linked to Netscape co-founder Jim Clark, then the most expensive residential property ever to change hands in Florida, and the new lot (Property Appraiser; Palm Beach Daily News). One June 15, 2022 entry for $173,000,000 appears on both the estate and the island parcel, both owned by Florida Realty LLC (Property Appraiser); The Coastal Star described the island piece as an approximately 7-acre wildlife sanctuary on Bird Island (Coastal Star). That gives him 1,400 feet of beach frontage in total and about 1,500 feet of additional Intracoastal waterfront (PBDN). The Real Deal, describing the compound at the time of the 2022 purchase, gives 1,200 feet on the Atlantic and 1,300 feet along Lake Worth (The Real Deal). Ellison filed a Declaration of Domicile with Palm Beach County in May 2023 moving his primary residence from Lanai, Hawaii, to the Manalapan estate, according to the document as Realtor.com reviewed it, a filing Forbes first reported (Realtor.com via Yahoo Finance).

WeatherTech founder David MacNeil closed the northern slice for $32M on June 15. The Wall Street Journal reported June 15 that Satter was selling portions of the land to the two neighbors for a combined $67 million (The Wall Street Journal). Together they paid about $66.4M on reported figures, by our sum, for land Stewart Satter bought through an ownership company in March 2024 for a recorded $27.5M, razed a 1989 mansion on, and once marketed toward a speculative megamansion of about $285M that never got built (PBDN; Coastal Star). The selling LLC’s mailing address, 1640 S. Ocean Blvd, is owned by Stewart A. Satter and Susan Satter (Property Appraiser). When his plans changed, Satter priced MacNeil’s parcel at $35M and Ellison’s at $40M; both closed below those asks (PBDN; our arithmetic).

MacNeil kept going. In July he paid $36M for 1920 S. Ocean Blvd, the house immediately north of his own, from auto dealer Ralph Gesualdo, more than triple what Gesualdo paid in 2020 (PBDN; The Real Deal). The Property Appraiser lists a July 10, 2026 warranty deed at $36,000,000 to the David F. MacNeil Trust, against the $10,299,100 Gesualdo and a co-owner paid in January 2020 (Property Appraiser). With the recorded $68.32M he paid for his own house in February and the $32M land, MacNeil has spent $136.32M assembling the three properties that make up his estate (PBDN). Town records show he plans a 20,578-square-foot addition to the 17,558-square-foot house he owns at 1940 S. Ocean Blvd (Coastal Star). He prunes too: he sold the 3.5-acre lot at 1120 S. Ocean Blvd for $105M to HSH-Sunshine Revocable Trust, whose trust documents hide the buyer, after buying it as two parcels and razing two houses, and pocketed $11.5M (Coastal Star).

Town code allows one tunnel per property. The former Ziff estate came with three air-conditioned pedestrian tunnels under A1A when Ellison bought it in 2022 from Clark’s trust, and he was allowed to keep them; the Satter land has a fourth. Clark had bought the estate and part of Bird Island from the Ziff family in February 2021 for a combined price recorded at $94.37M (Palm Beach Daily News); the Property Appraiser shows $94,172,825 for the estate and $200,000 for the island parcel, both March 4, 2021 warranty deeds, or $94,372,825 (Property Appraiser; our arithmetic). On July 14, 2026, Manalapan commissioners agreed to waive building codes so he could have the fourth tunnel and make other improvements, including what he termed an engineering building near the Intracoastal (Coastal Star).

Nicholas Malinosky of Douglas Elliman’s Exclusive Group represented Satter in both land sales and also acted on Ellison’s behalf (The Real Deal; PBDN). Margit Brandt of Premier Estate Properties represented MacNeil (Coastal Star). Same-street sales set the local tape Ellison and MacNeil are underwriting by staying. The warranty deed for 1660 S. Ocean Blvd is dated May 29, 2026 at $70,851,054, to Building Florida Home LLC of Seattle; the prior owner of record, Ronald G. McMackin and a co-owner, paid $38,875,000 in December 2020, and Satter had bought the same parcel for $4,925,000 in 2005 (Property Appraiser).

The assembly now runs inland. Ellison quietly bought eight homes for members of his household staff, including tutors for his children, in the gated Palm Meadows Estates community in Boynton Beach, about a 30-minute drive from the compound. The county parcel layer shows eight Grand Prix Ln homes titled to Florida Estates LLC at 101 Ygnacio Valley Rd in Walnut Creek, Calif., bought between May 8 and June 8, 2023 for a combined $9,110,999 on recorded deeds, at prices from $910,000 to $1,475,000 (Palm Beach County GIS). The Wall Street Journal first reported the purchases on Sept. 28, 2026, in a story by Katherine Clarke and Emily Glazer: eight homes in the gated community, with different sellers and most unlisted, closed within weeks of each other in 2023 for a total of almost $10 million, all bought by the same limited liability company with a California address (The Wall Street Journal; The Real Deal). Some homeowners opposed one person owning multiple houses, and the HOA later created a rule to stop it from happening again (The Real Deal).

The hotel side is moving too. Ellison paid $277.4M for the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa in Manalapan in 2024 (The Real Deal; The Coastal Star) and $30M a year later for the Lion Country Safari drive-thru animal park (The Real Deal). The record ties the entities together by address. MPB Property LLC holds the Eau site under an Aug. 7, 2024 warranty deed at $277,391,500, with the same Walnut Creek mailing address as Florida Realty LLC, the owner of record of Ellison’s 2000 S. Ocean estate. LCS Property LLC, at that address, holds 253.23 acres at 2003 Lion Country Safari Rd under a Nov. 12, 2025 deed at $30,000,000, and on July 1, 2026 bought a 6.18-acre Southern Blvd parcel in the same section for $270,000 (Property Appraiser). The Coastal Star reported in 2022 that Florida Realty LLC’s California address is the same as the Larry Ellison Foundation’s (The Coastal Star). On Sept. 8, Manalapan commissioners leased the town’s former bank building at Plaza del Mar to MPB Property LLC, which The Coastal Star calls the resort’s owner, for $4,600 a month as a base for renovation work across A1A, and approved new black aluminum balcony railings and teak-look cladding. Eau general manager Tim Nardi said the renovation is “about to start” (Coastal Star).

Up the coast, Ellison is asking. He has listed his oceanfront estate in the gated Seminole Landing community of North Palm Beach for $165 million, a record asking price for North Palm Beach that pencils out to over $10,000 a square foot (The Real Deal), and “a new high-water mark for the area” (Robb Report). The Wall Street Journal first reported Oct. 2 that he planned to relist it at $165 million, about 14% more than his original 2022 asking price, according to listing agents James Kenny and Paul Kaneb of K2 Realty (The Wall Street Journal; The Real Deal). He bought it in 2021 for $80 million, slightly above its $79.5 million asking price, and listed it for $145 million the next year, with no takers. Hedge fund manager Gabe Hoffman of Accipiter Capital Management had bought it for $17.5 million in 2012 (Robb Report; The Wall Street Journal; The Real Deal). Robb Report describes roughly 8.4 acres, more than 500 feet of ocean frontage and a 16,300-square-foot house from the 1990s; The Real Deal says the house was built in 1991, with more than 550 feet of water frontage, and that the listing calls the estate prime for a teardown or expansion (The Real Deal). The Property Appraiser places it at 12210 Banyan Rd, titled to Florida Estates LLC at the same Walnut Creek address, with an April 6, 2021 entry at $80,000,000, after a Dec. 27, 2012 warranty deed at $17,485,000; no later sale has posted as of Oct. 18. The press says about 8.4 acres; the Property Appraiser lists 18.82 (Property Appraiser).

How it works

Land assembly is the wealth strategy; the house is the receipt. UHNW Florida buyers price privacy by contiguous feet of waterfront and control of the neighbor lot, not by listing adjectives. A tunnel waiver is not a lifestyle feature. It is an entitlement that makes the second lot usable as part of the first compound. The Real Deal files Ellison’s staff homes under “landmaxxing”: land that can be used for privacy, future expansions, and in some cases, for staff.

What could still stop it

The town is still the gate, and it is busy. On Sept. 8, commissioners let the contractor building a private pedestrian tunnel under A1A at 1860 S. Ocean Blvd keep working through Nov. 14, the first such request under the town’s May 20, 2025 tunnel ordinance, which bars tunnel construction from Nov. 1 to April 14 without advance commission approval; the state did not approve the work until Aug. 24, after three years of permitting, and the article does not name the owner (Coastal Star). The Property Appraiser lists 1860 S. Ocean as a 2.47-acre vacant parcel held by the 1860 South Ocean Boulevard Trust, Ronald S. Kochman trustee, bought July 1, 2022 for $26,775,000; the record does not name a beneficial owner (Property Appraiser). On Sept. 28, commissioners unanimously held the tax rate at $3 per $1,000 for a fifth straight year; with taxable values up 6.94% to about $2.59B, that brings in about $7.49M, roughly $471,000 more than last year and 6.65% above the rollback rate (Coastal Star).

The neighbors’ tape keeps resetting. Gesualdo’s MGM Designs LLC sold the nearly 2-acre lake-to-ocean homesite at 1820 S. Ocean Blvd for $30M to an entity linked to Palm Beach attorney Maura Ziska of Kochman & Ziska, after paying $7M in 2015; the true buyer is unclear (The Real Deal). The record shows an Aug. 24, 2026 deed at $30,000,000 to 1820 South Ocean LLC, in care of Kochman & Ziska PLC, and a $7,050,000 purchase by MGM Designs LLC in 2015 (Property Appraiser). Next door at 1840 is Fox News host Sean Hannity, who paid $23.5M two years ago (The Real Deal). Up the road, 960 S. Ocean Blvd, 2.69 acres with 250 feet on both the ocean and the Intracoastal and a 16,538-square-foot house built in 1989, is listed at $95M as an opportunity to renovate, expand, or build new (Realtor.com).

Why it matters across Florida

The same assemble pattern shows up from Indian Creek to Jupiter Island to Casey Key whenever a famous name buys the parcel that kills a neighbor’s view corridor or a developer’s spec dream. Palm Beach County just published the receipt with two cover-the-dek names on one tax map, and one of them also owns eight staff houses half an hour inland.

What to watch

A deed for Ellison’s 1960 S. Ocean purchase: none posted to the Property Appraiser as of Oct. 18. MacNeil’s 20,578-square-foot addition and Ellison’s engineering building through town review. The 1860 S. Ocean tunnel against its Nov. 14 deadline. The Eau renovation. Who is behind the $30M 1820 S. Ocean buy. Whether 960 S. Ocean sells as a teardown. Whether the North Palm Beach estate sells at $165M. Comparable barrier-island assembles elsewhere on the coast.

Correction

Correction, Oct. 6, 2026: An earlier version of this story said a sale of about $72M tied to Ron and Cindy McMackin, in The Coastal Star’s account, set the local tape. The warranty deed for 1660 S. Ocean Blvd is dated May 29, 2026 at $70,851,054, to Building Florida Home LLC of Seattle; the prior owner of record was Ronald G. McMackin and a co-owner (Palm Beach County Property Appraiser).

Correction, Oct. 6, 2026: An earlier version of this story said Ellison bought eight Boynton Beach homes for staff for nearly $10M. The eight Florida Estates LLC purchases on Grand Prix Ln, May 8 to June 8, 2023, total $9,110,999 on recorded deeds (Palm Beach County GIS parcel layer).

Correction, Oct. 6, 2026: An earlier version of this story said the Lion Country Safari tract is 254 acres. The Property Appraiser lists 253.23 acres for LCS Property LLC’s $30,000,000 purchase of Nov. 12, 2025 (Palm Beach County Property Appraiser).

Correction, Oct. 8, 2026: An earlier version of this story said Ellison bought the 15.65-acre estate at 2000 S. Ocean Blvd for about $173M in 2022. The recorded $173,000,000 entry of June 15, 2022 covers both the estate and a 6.79-acre parcel in the Intracoastal west of it, bought together from a trust linked to Netscape co-founder Jim Clark (Palm Beach County Property Appraiser; Palm Beach Daily News).

Correction, Oct. 16: An earlier version of this story attributed to both Palm Beach Daily News and The Real Deal the figures of 1,400 feet of total beach frontage and about 1,500 feet of additional Intracoastal waterfront. Only Palm Beach Daily News states those figures; The Real Deal gives 1,200 feet on the Atlantic and 1,300 feet along Lake Worth for the compound at the time of the 2022 purchase (Palm Beach Daily News via The Boca Raton Tribune; The Real Deal).