Frank and Dolores Mennella have purchased a 1.5-acre ocean-to-lake estate in Manalapan for $51.7 million, according to property records released on Apr. 3. The transaction adds another high-value property to the couple’s growing portfolio of luxury homes in Palm Beach County.
The acquisition is notable due to its size and price, amounting to $34.5 million per acre and $2,624 per square foot. The sellers were represented by Gary Pohrer with Serhant and Christopher Leavitt with Douglas Elliman, while Philip Lyle Smith with Luxury Resort Portfolio brought the buyers.
The Mennellas are known for their frequent investments in the area’s luxury real estate market. Last year, they set a record by purchasing a mansion in Jupiter’s Bear’s Club community for $48 million. They also recently sold an oceanfront Manalapan estate at 1940 South Ocean Boulevard to WeatherTech founder David MacNeil for $68.3 million, as well as another nearby property at 1400 South Ocean Boulevard for $48.4 million in 2023.
With this latest purchase, the total value of their current homes in Palm Beach County reaches nearly $99.7 million.
The seller of the newly acquired property is Vivian Dimond, head of Miami-based Bayshore Grove Capital, who completed construction on the mansion after acquiring it from Nigerian oil magnate Onajite Okoloko following foreclosure proceedings in 2024. Okoloko had previously listed the home for up to $87.5 million before losing it through foreclosure proceedings.
Dimond finished building the approximately 19,700-square-foot mansion last year; it features six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, five half-bathrooms as well as amenities such as a salon, game room, wellness wing, indoor pool and outdoor pool among others including a tennis court and dock—plus frontage on both ocean and Intracoastal Waterway.
This sale continues a trend of significant transactions within Manalapan’s luxury real estate sector this season: In December billionaire optometrist Dr. Herbert Wertheim bought another large waterfront home there for $62 million.
