Family behind The Villages buys Boca Grande estate for $21M

A trust connected to the family that developed The Villages retirement community in central Florida has bought a waterfront estate on Boca Grande for $21 million. 

The beachfront home in the small community on Gasparilla Island, in Lee County, features over an acre of Gulf-front property, according to a statement from Michael Saunders & Co. Carol Stewart, a Realtor with MS&C, represented both the buyer and seller in the transaction.

The firm didn’t disclose the name of the buyer. 

Lee County property records show the buyer is Jennifer Morse Parr Trust, with an address of Kiessel Road in The Villages that matches The Villages Commercial Property Management. Gary Morse, dubbed “the billionaire behind Florida’s Villages” in a 2014 Bloomberg News story when he died, moved to Florida from Michigan in 1983 to help his father, Harold Schwartz, sell homes in the then-struggling mobile home community, according to a history of The Villages on the Inside the Bubble blog. Morse had three children, including Jennifer Parr, according to Bloomberg.  

The sellers of the property, records show, are Daniel and Pamela Pappano. The Pappanos bought the property in 2011 for $2.67 million, according to the Lee County Property Appraiser’s office. 

The sale of the estate, meanwhile, represents one of the area's highest property sales, according to MS&C. The house, 4511 Shore Lane, was custom-built by Dewey-Noller Builders. "The sellers, who built the house, enjoyed this spectacular home with their family for many years,” Stewart says in the release. “The new owners are second-generation Boca Grande homeowners and plan to make some family memories of their own."

The real estate firm notes the market in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties “has been characterized by a surge in demand for properties priced above $5 million, with several sales exceeding $10 million and now, $20 million.”

Carol Stewart works out of the Michael Saunders & Co. Boca Grande office.