A world-class trophy property is available on the oceanfront in John’s Island for a mere $60 million, a fraction of what it would set you back in Palm Beach, Manalapan or an elite waterfront neighborhood in Miami.
The fully permitted project includes land, plans for a contemporary estate with a health and wellness theme, and a builder’s contract for completion of a home with 15,000 square feet under air and 28,000 square feet under roof.
Dubbed Bleu Horizon, the project was unveiled this week by John’s Island Real Estate broker associate Luke Webb.
“It is the largest oceanfront property available in John’s Island,” Webb told Vero Beach 32963.
“Most oceanfront lots in the community are 120 feet wide, but they get wider at the northern end of Ocean Road, and Bleu Horizon is on a double lot.
“The larger the lot you have, the more private you can be, which is very desirable to many buyers. This being two of the largest lots in John’s Island makes it that much more of a trophy property.”
Jimbo Lumley, director of construction at Darling Construction, the builder attached to the project, said Bleu Horizon is the largest oceanfront available anywhere between Palm Beach and Vero.
“It is a spectacular piece of property, by far the largest available, 503 feet deep with 260 feet of ocean frontage,” said Lumley. “Privacy means a lot to people at this level and to have such a large lot in a private club community offers that more than other options.”
The planned estate sits lightly on the elevated, 3.4-acre seaside lot.
Besides the L-shaped main house with a two-story, glass-walled, open staircase living room, there is a 4,400-square-foot guest house with kitchen, living room, children’s playroom and four-bedroom suites, and a free-standing wellness pavilion with gym, yoga room, steam room and sauna.
Altogether, there is slightly more than 15,000 square feet of air-conditioned space, just half of what could be built according to county building and zoning codes. That space is supplemented by more than 10,000 square feet of covered walkways, terraces, balconies and pavilions, intended to give residents the full benefit of living in a beautiful corner of the natural world.
There’s also more than 3,100 square feet of garage space and an 80-foot-long resort-style swimming pool with all the bells and whistles, set perpendicular to the shoreline at the heart of the estate.
“You can swim laps looking at the ocean in one direction and looking back at the wellness pavilion in the other,” Webb said.
The architectural style is what’s commonly call “transitional,” not dramatically modern, but contemporary with a tropical twist.
In keeping with the British West Indies style popular in Vero, the buildings are for the most part just one room deep with covered terraces and balconies to take full advantage of ocean breezes.
A large, 3D-printed model of the estate on display at Darling Construction’s Beachland Boulevard office, shows an airy seaside compound with a dreamy sense of ease and openness that somehow evokes a Hawaiian setting.
The owner, who Webb declined to identify by name, purchased the first of two lots during the later days of the pandemic in the U.S. He conceived the estate as a place for warm weather vacations and a secure retreat where his large family could gather and live comfortably in case of another major contagious outbreak.
The owner has homes around the world, according to Webb, and studied urban planning and took architecture courses in college before pursuing a successful business career in manufacturing and technology.
“Sometimes you have those folks who just love real estate,” said Webb, referring to the owner, who fits the mold of people like Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison, who became passionate about development after successful business careers.
“They love the act of researching markets and finding perfect properties, putting together a team and a deal. They are students of the business. This was a labor of love.”
Like many others, the owner went on the hunt for a Florida home during the pandemic, but Palm Beach and Miami were too busy and congested for his taste.
An interior designer put him in touch with Ramie Darling, owner of Darling Construction, who took him to see a 1990s house at 672 Ocean Road, near the northern boundary of John’s Island.
He bought the 1.7-acre property for $8,245,000 in November 2021, according to county records, planning to either renovate the home to meet his family’s needs or tear it down and build from scratch.
After a period of evaluation, the owner decided to demo the house and start fresh, with demolition taking about a month, according to Lumley.
During the period of evaluation and demolition, the buyer got interested in the lot next door to the north. Finding it available, he purchased the 1.7-acre wooded tract for $7.5 million in December 2021.
As the vision took shape, the second lot was cleared, and Melbourne architect Andrew Kirschner was hired to develop a set of plans.
The owner and his family joined John’s Island Club and proceeded with preconstruction and permitting.
When plans were complete, Darling Construction began major sitework in 2023.
The first task was to build a structural wall enclosing the building site. Next, the enclosed space was filled with a massive quantity of beach compatible material from a local sand mine.
“There were 924 dump-truck loads of fill placed on the site, raising it 12 feet,” Lumley said.
Figuring 15 cubic yards to the truckload, that amounts to nearly 14,000 cubic yards of fill.
Shaped into a monolith, the fill would make a square column 60 feet on each side and 10 stories tall.
Distributed within the retaining walls at the site, it lifted the planned estate almost 20 feet above sea level, part of an effort to “future-proof” the project.
After the lot was filled, compacted and graded, Darling Construction proceeded to sink 250 heavy auger pilings and put up form boards to pour the sprawling foundation, with sitework continuing through most of 2024.
Then, in December 2024, work was halted.
The owner of the property had been renovating a second tropical retreat at Mill Reef Club in Antigua while moving forward with the John’s Island project.
At the critical moment, he and his family decided to make their blue water home on the Caribbean island instead of in Florida. Since then, the property has been quietly shopped around to John’s Island members and others, generating interest but no buyer so far.
Now, Webb and Mandy Robinson, director of marketing at John’s Island Real Estate, are launching a marketing campaign that will be seen in national and international publications as well as local Palm Beach and Vero Beach periodicals.
All concerned, including Webb, Lumley and the owner, want to see the project move forward as planned, creating a private family vacation and wellness resort.
“I would love to see this one get built,” said Lumley. “I am passionate about all our builds, but this one more than most.”
Lumley said there is exceptional value in the partially completed estate.
In addition to the rare size of the property, the deep privacy potential, and access to an elite country club lifestyle at a time when most island clubs have long wait lists, time savings would be a big advantage for a buyer.
“We have two years in this,” said Lumley. “Someone starting over from scratch would have to go through those two years again to get where we are today.
“If a new owner wanted to proceed with what is planned, we could complete the project in 24 to 30 months, getting them into their home much quicker.
“It is my experience that people this level know the value of time even more than the rest of us. Completing Bleu Horizon would save them two years and get them something that isn’t available elsewhere.”
Despite their desire to see the project come to fruition as planned, Lumley, Webb and the owner are prepared to look at other offers and scenarios.
Lumley could build a house with the same footprint but with a different floor plan, or build a house with a different footprint and architectural style on the 3.4-acre tract.
Likewise, if an ardent buyer emerged who wanted to build a dream home on just one of the original lots, the offer would be considered.
“As it is, the land is for sale for $26 million, or possibly $13 million per original lot,” Webb said. “The whole package with the planned house is offered for $60 million.”
Recent sales of oceanfront lots or teardowns in John’s Island have traded in the $11-million to $12-million range, but those were smaller properties, 1.2 or 1.3 acres instead of 1.7 acres.
“The owner is not assigning a big premium to the land, in spite of how special it is,” said Webb.
“The comps fully support the asking price for the land, and the same is true of the complete estate if you look at comparable per-square-foot prices in JI” – not to mention comps in the billionaire bastions to the south where prices are astronomically higher.
Using the gross square footage of 28,000, the complete Bleu Horizon package, land and elegant, breezy buildings, is being offered at about $2,150 per square foot.
By comparison, the average per square foot price in Palm Beach recently hit $4,500 according to a CNN report, and star South Florida waterfront properties on large lots are selling for as much as $6,000 a foot.
