According to selling agent Melissa Hall Rowan of Corcoran Austin Hill Realty, a riverfront estate outside Savannah, Ga., sold for $8.4 million, breaking its own record for the most expensive sale in the area.
Rowan declined to identify the buyer, but said the buyer is local and made an offer on the house before it was formally offered for $8.7 million in October. According to Ridley Stallings, who held the listing with Rowan, the buyer paid an additional $300,000 for furnishings.
The roughly 4.5-acre estate on Wilmington Island was built around 2009 by Food Network star Paula Deen, who sold it to California-based real-estate investor Lionel Achuck in 2020 for a then-record $6.818 million, according to public records.
Achuck did not reply immediately to a request for comment. The seller, according to Rowan, added three bedrooms to the originally two-bedroom main house.
He bought the house as a family compound for holidays and vacations, but sold it because he discovered a better spot for family gatherings closer to home, according to Stallings.
According to Stallings, the home's exorbitant price was justified by its exceptionally enormous size and extensive facilities. The walled, nearly 28,000-square-foot home is about 10 miles southeast of downtown Savannah on the Wilmington River.
According to Rowan, the main house has 14 bedrooms, two guest cottages, two apartments, and a multiuse barn with a movie room. She described the property as having around 300 feet of river frontage and a dock with a fishing cabin with a window close enough to the water to allow indoor fishing. Another pond on the site is stocked with fish.
In the main house, the gourmet kitchen with commercial appliances is the same one used by Deen. The study has a saltwater fish tank, Rowan said, and the new owner has asked to keep the tropical fish living there.
The grounds also contain an outdoor kitchen, a croquet lawn and a pool with a slide, said Rowan. There is a chicken coop with about five chickens, which will remain with the property.
Deen bought the property for $3.75 million in 2006 and completed the home around 2009. Deen, a Georgia native, is known for shows including Food Network’s “Paula’s Best Dishes,” which ran from 2008 to 2013, and numerous cookbooks.
Taavo Roos of Seabolt Real Estate, the buyer's agent, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Luxury residences are in strong demand in the Savannah market, according to Stallings.
According to Redfin, single-family houses in Savannah sold for a median of around $340,000 in October, up 11.2% from the same period previous year. A property in Savannah's South Historic District sold for $6.1665 million in July.