John W. Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox, Boston Globe and Liverpool Football Club, has just listed his Boca Raton, Florida waterfront mansion for US$25 million.
According to TopTenRealEstateDeals.com, the self-made billionaire went from a college-dropout, farmer’s son to meteoric rise to billionaire by mathematically figuring out how commodities rose and fell by working with soybean sales on his father’s Arkansas farm.
The basis of his success formula was relying strictly on mathematics, completely void of the human element.
In 1981, he started his own commodities trading firm, J.W. Henry & Co., which made his fortune.
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Always a sports fan, Mr Henry bought the minor league baseball team Tucson Toros in 1989, partial interest in the New York Yankees in 1991 and sole owner of the Florida Marlins in 1999.
He hit the big time in 2002 when he purchased the Boston Red Sox for US$380 million soon helping guide them out of an 86-year drought to win the 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018 World Series titles.
During these years, he also bought and restored Fenway Park, became majority owner of England’s Liverpool Football Club, secured a 50 per cent share in a NASCAR racing team, bought The Boston Globe and helped launch a race-car, driving-simulator program iRacing.com.
With a lifetime of success on almost everything Mr Henry touches including a current value of about US$3 billion for the Red Sox, it’s not surprising that he created one of the most stunning homes in Florida.
As a new resident of Florida with his second commodities office in Boca Raton, Mr Henry purchased a 6.3 acre parcel of land in the exclusive 200-acre gated community of Le Lac — only five miles from the centre of downtown.
A fan of Japanese design, he incorporated it into the plans for his new home which the family named “The House of Peace.”
The home was completed in 1995 with large open spaces, 40-foot ceilings, skylights and walls of glass on the main floor overlooking the calm waters of the lakefront.
Crisp architectural lines, white walls and large windows throughout create a sunny, calming, cheerful atmosphere.
All furnishings were designed specifically for the Henry family. The house — which has seven bedrooms and 19 baths — has a cherry-panelled library, an indoor-outdoor pizza room with dining area and wood-burning pizza oven, a theatre with concession stand, a state-of-the-art recording studio, and an underground 1,000-bottle wine cellar with its own generator to keep the wine at 53 degrees should there be a temporary power outage.
One of the most notable features is the memorabilia and sports-bar room built for Henry’s collection of sports trophies.
The guest wing contains a kitchenette, playroom and a living room with ping-pong table.
Outside under swaying palms, recreation includes a swimming pool, cabana, outdoor kitchen, and clay tennis court.
The custom-designed mansion of Mr Henry is now for sale in Boca Raton, Florida priced at US$25 million.
Boca is one of the east coast’s most upscale towns on the Atlantic Ocean with expensive shopping, restaurants, Florida luxury condominiums and homes.
The listing agent is Seneda Adzem of Douglas Elliman, Boca Raton.
- news.com.au
