A Wellington property, home to the Lechuza Caracas polo team, just sold for $17.1 million.
Property records show PBC Polo Properties LLC, a company owned by Palm Beach financier Nate Ward, purchased the 62-acre estate at 4360 South Road. Ward is partner and co-founder of Palm Beach Capital, a private equity investment firm based in West Palm Beach. He financed the sale with a $14.1 million mortgage from Stifel Bank & Trust.
Tom Baldwin of Equestrian Sotheby’s International Realty brokered the deal. The polo and show jumping equestrian facility was listed for $39 million, which means it sold for less than half the original asking price. Baldwin said the buyer purchased the Wellington property as an investment. Ward could not immediately be reached for comment.
The seller is PF Polo Properties LLC, a company controlled by Emma Cisneros. Cisneros is CEO of Quorum Management Company, and has been connected to Venezuelan banker and polo player Victor Vargas, who owns the famous polo team as well as Banco Occidental de Descuento, the fourth-largest bank in Venezuela.
The equestrian compound includes a 60-stall polo barn, a 12-stall show jumping barn, tack rooms, feed rooms, an aquatic horse walker, owner’s living quarters, nine apartments with a kitchen and a manager’s office, among other horse-friendly features. In all, it has 15 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms, according to the listing. Records show it last sold for $4.4 million in 2002.
Wellington is home to a number of wealthy equestrian enthusiasts, including the Bill Gates family, Steve Jobs’ widow and billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs and Georgina Bloomberg, the daughter of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In April, a Vargas and Cisneros-led entity sold an oceanfront estate in Palm Beach to billionaire real estate investor Frank McCourt for $77 million.