WeatherTech Founder Sells Fort Laudersale's Most Expensive Home for $40 Million

WeatherTech founder and chief executive David MacNeil has sold a newly built beachfront home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for a record $40 million.

The roughly 13,000-square-foot home on Fort Lauderdale Beach listed in July for $39,999,999, according to listing agent Tim Elmes of Compass, who had the listing with colleague Melanie Groenendaal. 

MacNeil bought the land for about $3 million in 2018, according to property records. He had the house custom-built, said Elmes. 

The buyer is a businessman with a large family who planned to buy a home in the nearby Harbor Beach neighborhood before seeing the listing, said Elmes. 

“We are fortunate to live in a state that has created an environment that allows and promotes real-estate investment,” MacNeil said in a prepared statement. 

The contemporary seven-bedroom home has a juice bar and a rooftop deck, said Elmes. The primary suite has dual closets and a balcony. The house was sold furnished. 

The roughly 0.4-acre property has an outdoor kitchen, an infinity pool and a cabana with an outdoor shower, said Elmes.

MacNeil founded WeatherTech, a Chicago-area automotive-accessories manufacturer known for its floor mats, in 1989, according to the company’s website. He also owns homes near Chicago and in California, property records show. 

The buyer’s agent, Austin Baris of Miles Goldstein Real Estate, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Until now, the next most expensive sale in Fort Lauderdale was a $32.5 million deal last year.

Ultraluxury home sales in Broward County have tripled since 2020, according to Elmes. In September, a waterfront Fort Lauderdale home sold for $30 million. 

The median home sale price in Fort Lauderdale was $520,000 in September, roughly even with the same time last year, according to Redfin.

Source | THE WALL STREET JOURNAL