Dov Stark’s record-setting Ember House found a buyer.
The new 15,000-square-foot waterfront estate in Fort Lauderdale’s Sunrise Intracoastal neighborhood is under contract for $51 million to a mystery buyer, the Wall Street Journal reported. The home at 513 Middle River Drive hit the market in April for $55 million, the highest-priced residential listing in Broward County at the time, The Real Deal previously reported.
Stark, the founder and CEO of Prestige Homes Development who designed, developed and listed the property, is the seller. The unidentified buyers are represented by Joelle Oiknine of One Sotheby’s International Realty, the outlet said. The deal, set to close in January, would be one of the priciest home sales in the city.
Oiknine told the outlet that the buyers were not interested in the “bland, white box” homes in Miami Beach and Golden Beach.
“When they got to Fort Lauderdale, they made us cancel all the other appointments,” she said.
Stark, who lives two doors down from the property, paid $5.5 million for the 0.4-acre lot in 2024. He demolished a home on the site and spent 15 months building the new home, which cost $35 million in construction expenses alone.
The estate has 5,000 square feet of outdoor living space and includes six bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and four half-bathrooms. It has 145 feet of waterfrontage, a rooftop pickleball court, an eight-car garage and a 85-foot mosaic pool.
All of the interior walls are finished in stone, leather, wood or fabric.
“I didn’t buy one gallon of paint,” Stark told the outlet.
Stark told TRD in June that Ember House was his most ambitious project yet. The developer has lived in Fort Lauderdale for over 25 years. He’s spent seven years in the Sunrise Intracoastal neighborhood, where he’s developed five homes.
A third of the homes in the neighborhood are on the water. Prime waterfront estates are commanding record prices in Fort Lauderdale as buyers race to own a front-row seat to the city’s coveted boating lifestyle.
In May, WeatherTech founder David MacNeil sold his Fort Lauderdale mansion for $26 million. A month later, Hard Rock executive James F. Allen and his wife, Shelly, bought a waterfront estate in Fort Lauderdale for $35.8 million. In July, a proposed trophy estate hit the city’s market for $80 million.
—Grace McClung
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