A riverfront home in St. Johns County along the St. Johns River sold April 8 at a no-reserve auction for $8.132 million.
The 12,100-square-foot home is on 14.17 acres at 2180 Eventide Ave. in Saint Johns.
Platinum Luxury Auctions of Miami held the no-reserve auction, which is a sale the highest bidder with no minimum price the seller has to accept.
At the end of 2024, the property was listed at $15 million and in March there was a pending sale at that price, according to Zillow.com. That deal fell through and the property was then sold at auction.
It is one of the highest prices paid for a riverfront property in the county, according to Dan McCarthy, a broker at Better Homes & Gardens Lifestyles Realty, which facilitated the deal.
The buyers were Patti C. and Thomas R. Wheeler of Orange Park.
The sellers were Duane L. and Susan M. Ottenstroer of Jacksonville.
The home, built in 1994, has seven bedrooms, six full and three half-bathrooms, an office, elevator, pool, deck, patio, porches, a guesthouse and a dock.
The property has 600 feet of river frontage.
Duane Ottenstroer co-founded The Unit Companies, a national supplier of distribution services. After selling the company he became a venture capital investor. He is a philanthropist involved on several charitable boards. He is chairman of the Florida Prepaid College Board and a director at Riverplace Capital Management Inc.
Patti Wheeler is a children’s author who created the Travels with Gannon and Wyatt adventure series. The books are named after her two sons. Wyatt died of an overdose of the herbal substance kratom. She is in California making a documentary about the dangers of kratom, which is often sold as a supplement.
Pam Gause of Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate Lifestyles Realty made the Wheelers aware of the auction. Gause and Patti Wheeler are sisters-in-law. Wheeler had been married to Gause’s brother before he died.
In the case of an auction, the real estate agent does due diligence prior to the sale. The agent advises the bidder on the true value of the property and discusses bid limits and strategy.
The Wheelers are no strangers to large properties. They have owned a cattle ranch in Colorado with a 17,000-square-foot home, a lake and lake houses, Gause said.
Gause had been showing the Wheelers property at the Beaches and Ponte Vedra since 2023. Nothing came with enough property to meet their needs until they found this home, she said.
Wheeler told Gause she wants to bring the interior up to date, rebuild the pool, remodel the guesthouse, repair the dock and landscape the grounds.
McCarthy, said the market is ripe with homes priced at more than $5 million.
He believes that luxury market buyers have been holding back on buying for the past year.
“Local buyers have let their agents know what they are looking for and telling them to let them know when it becomes available and they are jumping on it,” McCarthy said.
Also, with the volatility in the stock market, those with means may want to move stocks into real estate.
“There’s the tangible part of real estate is very, very attractive with everything that’s been going on,” he said.