A billionaire bought a Florida home for $94.2 million last year. Now it sells for about $175 million.

The deal is expected to expire off-market this week, Clark, who purchased the property and a nearby vacant island, showed for just over $94 million in March 2021, records show. He refused to identify the buyer.

The approximately 16-acre property is located on a barrier island in Manalapan, just south of Palm Beach. It was previously owned by the Ziff family of publishing.

Mr Clark said he and his wife, Kristi, bought the property as a “moment buying impulse” when they thought they would be living in Florida most of the time. He said they fell in love with the home’s aesthetics and features such as a vegetable garden. But as the year went on, they decided to stay in New York — they have homes in Bedford and Manhattan — and enrolled their two young daughters in school there, he said. He said Mr. Clark also felt the headwinds in the global economy and thought it made sense to sell.

“In the end, we kind of thought, ‘How much are we going down here?'” he recalls. “I knew someone wanted it, and I beat them with that, so I thought, ‘Let’s see if they want it again.'” Lawrence Moines of Lawrence A. said.

Mr. Clark said he had upgraded some mechanical systems, but had not made major changes to the estate. “Look,” he said, “it’s an extraordinary property.” “You can’t find anything like that in Florida.”

The property spans the width of a barrier island, with about 1,200 feet of ocean frontage and about 1,300 feet on the Intracoastal Waterway. The complex contains several structures, including the approximately 62,200 square foot, coral-stone-clad master residence. It also has a seven-bedroom guest house, two beach cottages and a manager’s home. The structures are connected via tunnels that pass down a road that divides the property. The property also has a swimming pool, pier, sports complex and a three-hole golf course.

Mr. Clark has co-founded Netscape and several other startups, most recently the digital security company Beyond Identity. He’s bought and sold several other luxury homes in Florida, and said he tends to overinvest in his homes. “I haven’t made any money from real estate yet,” he said.

So far, Palm Beach appears largely immune to the recent slowdown in luxury-goods sales. Earlier this month, an oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach closed for nearly $85.9 million, less than a year after it sold for $64 million, records show. In May, the number of contracts signed for single-family Palm Beach homes worth more than $10 million more than doubled compared to May 2021, according to Samuel Miller.

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