Business
Mark Wahlberg’s new $37 million mansion skyrocketed in value. Here’s what fueled the megahome’s extraordinary rise
Actor-entrepreneur Mark Wahlberg paid $37 million for a fully furnished mansion in Delray Beach, Florida, last month. The deal piqued interest and prompted coverage from TMZ to Architectural Digest, with most of the focus on the celebrity buyer.
But aside from the name recognition, the home’s skyrocketing price over the past five years also makes it stand out.
The actor’s transaction in October marks the home’s fourth sale in that same time period, and a dramatic 118% price increase from its sale in January 2020 when the fully furnished mansion traded for $17 million.
The grand entrance to the almost 17,800 sq ft estate known as Palazzo di Lago.
Daniel Petroni
The estate, located at 9200 Rockybrook Way, saw a rise in value that outpaced not just the local market, but also many of the top luxury markets in America.
In Delray Beach, the average sale price for a single-family luxury home, represented by the top 10% of closed sales, rose by just over 78%; Los Angeles was up 30%; the Hamptons rose 44%; and Manhattan increased just 4.5% according to Elliman Report data from the first quarter of 2020 to the third quarter of 2025.
The home’s steep rise in value even outperformed the S&P 500, which was up about 100% over the same time period.
One mansion, four sales
The massive resort-style pool in the backyard is flanked by adult palms, a jumbo chess set, fire features, and a waterfall with a grotto below and a hot tub on top.
Daniel Petroni
Remarkably, the residence has traded hands four times since 2020. Just one real estate broker represented the listing in all four transactions, making the soaring value of the seven-bedroom, 10-bath mansion even more unique.
Back in 2020, Douglas Elliman real estate broker Senada Adzem represented the original owners of 9200 Rockybrook, when the house was known as the Sundara estate. Three years later, Adzem represented the mansion’s second owners who listed the home again, when it sold for $26 million, up 53% in just three years.
A little over a year after buying the place, public records show a trust connected to William Cafaro, the co-president of a retail property development company in Niles, Ohio, and the home’s third resident decided to sell. Adzem was once again the listing agent.
This transaction was more unusual. Cafaro sold the home as part of a larger $50.5 million deal to purchase a Ferrari-inspired mansion less than half mile up the road in Stone Creek Ranch. Casa Maranello, as it’s known, was being sold by local developer Aldo Stark, of Prestige Design Homes, with Adzem as the listing agent.
Cafaro paid for the new home with $24.5 million in cash, plus the deed to 9200 Rockybrook Way, which was valued in the deal at the same price he’d paid for it: $26 million.
When that sale closed in January 2025, Stark became the fourth owner of the mansion and he immediately started a dramatic multimillion-dollar renovation of the almost 17,800-square-foot megahome. He scrapped the old Sundara name and clad the home’s old sheet-rocked walls in polished rare stones and bold high-gloss Guyana wood from Brazil.
A side-by-side before and after of the foyer’s grand staircase. Stark added a 30-ft tall vegetation wall and finished the adjacent walls in high-gloss Brazilian wood.
He installed vibrant green vegetation above a grand stairway and into the ceilings.
Stark completely reimagined everything from the kitchen to the clubroom and filled the residence with bespoke furniture.
The kitchen before.
Daniel Petroni
The kitchen after. The new-look includes counters clad in Orobico Grigio marble, floor-to-ceiling walnut cabinetry, vegetation accents in the ceiling and 30 tear-drop shaped light fixtures.
And about two moths after closing, the megahome was listed for sale for a fourth time.
Reemerging with a new look, new name and a new price tag, one of the few things to remain the same was that Adzem was once again the listing agent.
The lounge bar before.
Daniel Petroni
The lounge bar after.
Daniel Petroni
The home, now called Palazzo di Lago, debuted with an ambitious $45 million asking price, $19 million more than what Stark paid for it two months earlier and 165% more than what it sold for in 2020.
By October Adzem closed the fourth deal and delivered Palazzo di Lago to its fifth owner, who the buyer’s broker, Michael Costello of Compass, confirmed to CNBC was Mark Wahlberg.
One of the mansion’s two home offices clad in great wave marble.
Daniel Petroni
According to Florida’s Multiple Listing Service, the fully furnished mansion closed at $37 million, $11 million more than what Stark bought it for seven months earlier, and up 118% from its 2020 sale.
And Adzem pulled off an uncommon feat in real estate, selling the same house four times in five years in transactions totaling $106 million.
Primary bedroom
Daniel Petroni
Five owners across five years seems like an unusually high turnover rate, but Adzem has a simple explanation.
“People’s circumstances change and they have different chapters in their life. So we were privileged to be able to guide this home through different evolutions and different owners and be able to add value to it,” Adzem said.
According to Adzem, the mansion’s remarkable appreciation was fueled by a multitude of factors. Here are the top five:
1. The pandemic
Adzem attributed a large part of the 53% rise in price from 2020 to 2023 to the pandemic, which made demand and prices for homes in South Florida surge.
“After Covid, our market definitely accelerated,” she told CNBC.
Her walk-in closet is Chanel-boutique inspired
Daniel Petroni
2. The ‘micro-market’
Some of the other market dynamics driving the price of Palazzo di Lago are unique to Stone Creek Ranch, which Adzem described as a luxury “micro-market.”
The exclusive gated community spans about 187 acres with 37 luxury homes each on about 2.5 acre lots. It’s a tight supply that’s seen pricing dramatically impacted by a wave of new construction homes that have traded at record-breaking prices. Those recent comps helped push the price of Palazzo di Lago higher.
Even the price of dirt in Stone Creek Ranch is on a steep rise. Back in 2013, the empty lot at 9200 Rockybrook Way traded for $800,000. In 2021, Adzem sold a comparable 2.5-acre lot for $1.7 million.
“The last one they traded was $6 million,” Adzem told CNBC. “However … there are no vacant lots left in this community.”
And Adzem believes a more than threefold rise in the price of dirt here is just the beginning. She points to the fact that 2.5-acre lots worthy of a megahome are hard to come by in Palm Beach County, and the dwindling supply in this neighborhood in particular will push lot prices even higher.
“I feel like the dirt is going to double because the only upcoming potential sales would be teardowns.”
His closet takes inspiration from Tom Ford.
Daniel Petroni
3. The power of VIP neighbors
Another market driver: the tiny community’s growing list of VIP owners.
In 2021, billionaire hedge fund manager and owner of the New York Mets, Steve Cohen purchased the home next door to 9200 Rockybrook Way for about $22 million, according to MLS.
“[Potential buyers] typically do look to know who else owns in the community. That’s important to them,” Adzem said.
Rich and famous residents can create a halo effect and make nearby real estate more desirable to potential buyers. And there’s no shortage of ultra-high-net-worth neighbors living nearby, including several present and former CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, a former NFL player, and a pop star, according to Adzem and public records.
And now some might even see Walhberg’s new ownership as adding to the community’s allure. Meanwhile, developer Stark just finished construction and recently moved into his own 32,000-square-foot mansion.
4. Wealth migration
Wealthy buyers looking to escape the tax burdens of their home states continue to see the tax advantages offered in Florida as a big draw and that helps drive and sustain demand.
“We saw a big influx and continued influx of buyers from California, from New York, from Connecticut, and they want what you see here,” Adzem told CNBC.
The open-concept kitchen flows into a family room with faux vegetation that accents the ceiling.
Daniel Petroni
5. The multimillion-dollar renovation
Adzem also credited Stark’s renovation with adding to the estate’s value.
“He didn’t go neutral and he didn’t go very light with color scheme. He really wanted to make an impact and put his own taste here,” Adzem said.
Adzem and Stark would only characterize the expense as “a multimillion-dollar renovation,” so it’s unclear exactly how much it took to turn a home built in 2017 into the new Palazzo di Lago.
But Adzem told CNBC the dramatic renovation and the new “James-Bond-inspired vibe” were the final catalysts that delivered a buyer willing to pay a premium.
Correction: William Cafaro paid for the new home with $24.5 million in cash. A previous version of this story omitted the million. The price of the home rose 53% from 2020 to 2023. An earlier version misstated the percentage.
Ridvan_celik | Istock | Getty Images
A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
With donor-advised funds gaining popularity as a vehicle for the wealthy to give back, risks and potential conflicts of interests are emerging — and being put on display in a lawsuit over a family’s $21 million charitable fund.
Philip Peterson, a 63-year-old Kansas resident, filed suit in January alleging that the nonprofit that administers his family’s donor-advised fund has refused to communicate with him and has failed to make charitable grants that he has recommended since early 2024. The suit, filed in Colorado federal court, alleges the Christian nonprofit, called WaterStone, cut off his access to information about the account and that he doesn’t know how the fund has fared since the end of 2023, when it had $21 million in assets.
Counsel for WaterStone, founded as the Christian Community Foundation, said in a statement that the Colorado Springs nonprofit has respected the wishes of Peterson’s late father, who originally created the fund in 2005 and died in 2019.
The case sheds light on the growing uptake, and dangers, of donor-advised funds, or DAFs, which have quickly become one of the most dominant forces in philanthropy. Americans donated nearly $90 billion to DAFs in 2024, per the most recent annual report from the DAF Research Collaborative. According to the most recent data available, DAFs held $326 billion combined in assets in 2024.
For Americans looking to give back and save on taxes, DAFs are marketed as a flexible and simple way to do so, often described as charitable saving accounts or credit cards. Instead of writing a check to a nonprofit, donors contribute cash and other assets to a DAF. While the tax deduction is immediate, the funds can be allocated to charities later.
DAFs, unlike private foundations, are not required to distribute assets within a given timeframe, a common criticism among opponents who say DAFs are wealth hoarding vehicles.
The Peterson case offers a cautionary tale on the tradeoffs – especially when it comes to control. While donors are able to recommend how the funds are distributed to charity, the assets are legally controlled by the organizations that administer the DAF on their behalf. Though these organizations, also known as sponsors, typically respect their donors’ wishes, donors have little recourse if they do not.
“It’s sold to the public as, ‘This is your account, and you can decide where it goes, and you can move it, and you maintain full control.’ But if you don’t give up dominion and control, you don’t get the tax benefits,” said Ray Madoff, tax scholar and professor at Boston College Law School. “There’s a disconnect between the legal rules that govern it and the understanding of the parties. And this case is a perfect example of it.”
How much to give
Peterson told Inside Wealth that the rift with WaterStone started with a disagreement over how much to distribute.
In early 2024, Peterson alleges, WaterStone CEO Ken Harrison told him that the organization was going to keep the fund’s principal in perpetuity and only make grants from investment income. Peterson said he did not agree to the proposal as this would not allow the fund to make its customary annual grants of between $2.3 million and $2.5 million.
He further alleges that in March 2024, after he told Harrison over Zoom that he wanted to move the DAF to another sponsor, Harrison told him never to contact WaterStone again and abruptly ended the call.
Now Peterson is suing to assert his advisory privileges and regain access to the DAF, which was started by his late father, Gordon Peterson, a real estate investor and devout Christian, to support evangelical Christian causes. Peterson ultimately seeks the court to compel WaterStone to transfer the DAF to another organization so he can bring the fund’s giving back up to speed.
He said he requested WaterStone make a $1 million grant in 2024 but does not know if that grant – or if any grants – were issued that year. In 2025, WaterStone notified Peterson it would permit a $400,000 distribution from the fund, he said.
“I made a promise to my father. I promised him that if I was the remaining person on the account that I would direct the funds as I knew that he would 100% approve,” he said. “I want to be a man of my word.”
Philip Peterson, left, pictured with his father Gordon in 2015. Gordon Peterson passed away in 2019.
Courtesy of Philip Peterson
WaterStone declined to comment on specifics of Peterson’s allegations. The deadline for WaterStone to answer the complaint in court or move to dismiss it is mid-March.
“WaterStone has consistently carried out the articulated wishes of the donor since the donor advised fund in question was established,” WaterStone’s legal counsel said in a written statement, referring to Peterson’s father. “The plaintiff in this case is not the donor.”
Andrew Nussbaum, Peterson’s lawyer, said that WaterStone helped Gordon Peterson appoint his wife, Ruth, and son Philip as co-advisors to the DAF before he died. Ruth Peterson died in 2021, leaving Philip Peterson as the sole successor-advisor. Prior to 2024, WaterStone granted Philip Peterson’s grant requests, Nussbaum said.
Nussbaum said the lawsuit could set a chilling precedent if the court upholds WaterStone’s argument that designated successors do not have advisory privileges.
“If WaterStone is right, you’re talking about billions of dollars being beyond any kind of legal reach of the original donor-advisors or their successors to have any oversight related to the funds,” Nussbaum said.
Moreover, Peterson said he believes WaterStone has not honored his father’s wishes. He alleges that WaterStone has delayed or denied his grant recommendations even though they met the mission statement written by his father, which included a list of approved charities.
“I can tell you this: My dad would never have created a donor-advised fund if he knew that this was going to be the outcome. He felt very passionately about this,” he said.
DAF trade-offs
Law professor and DAF critic Roger Colinvaux said in his view, donors who want control of DAF assets are trying to have their cake and eat it too.
“Whether you like DAFs or not, the DAF sponsor is an independent charity. It’s an independent entity, and its duties are not to the donor,” said Colinvaux, professor at the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America. “If the plaintiff wanted the sort of control that the plaintiff seems to want, as evidenced in the complaint, there’s a structure for that, and that’s a private foundation.”
Dana Brakman Reiser, professor at Brooklyn Law School, cautioned that Peterson’s story is a rare scenario. She said the biggest DAF sponsors like Fidelity Charitable and Schwab Charitable (now DAFgiving360) are affiliated with financial institutions and generally inclined to keep donors happy.
“It’s in their interest as long as honoring the donor’s request is not going to get the sponsor in trouble,” she said. Brakman Reiser added that the IRS prohibits using DAF assets to buy gala tickets or pay college tuition.
Still, the interests of sponsors and donor-advisors are rarely perfectly aligned.
Sponsors typically collect fees for managing DAF assets, creating an inherent financial incentive to disburse fewer assets, according to Chuck Collins, the director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank. While community foundations pioneered the DAF model, they are now competing with larger commercially-affiliated sponsors for donors’ dollars, he added.
“More and more, they are having to compete with the commercial DAFs like Fidelity that have very low overhead and don’t take much in the way of fees. And so what’s the business model for a community foundation where, you know, 80% of the donations coming in are from people wanting to create DAFs?” he said. “In reality, their business model now depends on people parking their assets for longer periods of time.”
While Peterson’s case is unusual, it’s not the first legal challenge surrounding DAFs.
In 2018, a hedge fund couple sued Fidelity Charitable, contending the sponsor broke an agreement to liquidate their donated shares gradually and instead sold off 1.93 million shares, a position originally worth $100 million, in a matter of hours. Fidelity Charitable argued that it had followed the law and the case was ruled in their favor.
In another noteworthy debacle, in 2009, a Virginia-based charity called the National Heritage Foundation wiped out 9,000 DAFs worth $25 million combined to pay out creditors after it filed for bankruptcy.
Giving directly to charity doesn’t necessarily guarantee the assets will be used to the donor’s intent. But adding an intermediary into the equation adds another layer of complexity.
The handful of lawsuits filed by donor-advisors over how DAF assets are spent or invested have thus far been largely unsuccessful in court.
In short, according to Colinvaux, courts have upheld that donors have ceded any control in order to qualify for the tax break. If donors had the right to control assets — as opposed to the privilege to advise — they would not be able to claim a deduction, he said.
Nussbaum said Peterson’s case is different as it focuses on his rights to advise grants rather than control over how the assets are investments.
Peterson said he tried to resolve the dispute with Waterstone for about two years before going to court. While he knows his suit faces considerable odds, he said he felt he had no choice.
“People put an enormous amount of trust in these companies, and we’re hopefully going to find out what these companies can and can’t do,” he said. “It may have a big effect on the industry, and I don’t want to be that guy. All I want to do is to be able to continue my father’s legacy.”
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the IRS limitations on use of DAF assets.
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Waitrose is set to remove mackerel from its shelves amid escalating concerns over unsustainable fishing practices.
The retailer said that it is the first major UK supermarket to suspend sourcing of the popular fish.
It said that fresh, chilled, and frozen mackerel, primarily sourced from Scottish waters, will be unavailable to shoppers by 29 April. Tinned varieties will follow once the current stock is depleted.
Conservationists are welcoming the move and urging other supermarkets to follow suit.
The measure comes as governments have repeatedly failed to implement catch limits recommended by scientists, jeopardising the long-term viability of mackerel stocks.
The International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has issued stark warnings, advising a 70 per cent reduction in catches for 2026 across all regional mackerel stocks compared to 2025’s recommended levels.
With the stock consistently fished above sustainable thresholds, this translates to a 77 per cent cut on the 755,143 tonnes scientists estimated would be caught in 2025.
Overfishing has resulted in depleting mackerel stocks in the north-east Atlantic, with Ices saying the species, and the wider fishing industry, could face long-term risks unless countries stick to recommended catch limits.
Waitrose said the decision in December by four of the coastal states which fish mackerel to cut catches by 48 per cent was a step forward, but did not meet Ices advice.
North-east Atlantic mackerel will no longer meet the supermarket’s responsible sourcing requirements in line with the Sustainable Seafood Coalition codes of conduct, the retailer said.
Jake Pickering, head of agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries at Waitrose, said: “By suspending sourcing of mackerel at Waitrose we are reinforcing our ethical and sustainable business commitments, acting to tackle overfishing and protect the long-term health of our oceans and this crucial fish.
“Our customers trust us to source responsibly, and we are closely monitoring the fishery.
“We look forward to bringing mackerel back to our shelves once it meets our high sourcing standards.”
As alternatives, Waitrose is launching a new range of fish products including hot smoked herring, hot smoked peppered herring and hot smoked sweetcure seabass, all of which are Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified.
The retailer said it would also introduce MSC-certified frozen sardines from May as a sustainable replacement for frozen mackerel, and plans to become the first retailer to sell 100 per cent MSC tinned sardines.
Waitrose said it would maintain its relationship with its mackerel suppliers and its new supply of herring, seabass, sardines and trout will be sourced through current supplier partnerships.
But there is currently no predetermined time-frame as to when Waitrose will start sourcing mackerel again.
Marija Rompani, director of ethics and sustainability at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “We believe sustainable food production must balance climate action, nature protection and responsible fish sourcing is fundamental to protecting our oceans.
“We will continue to work closely with suppliers and industry partners to support the recovery and responsible management of fish stocks.”
Charles Clover, co-founder of conservation charity Blue Marine Foundation, said mackerel – one of the largest remaining commercial fish stocks in the north-east Atlantic – had declined 75 per cent in the last 10 years because fishing nations, including the UK, had overfished it.
“They have put too little effort into the task of reaching agreement on a sharing arrangement – and some countries have been awarding themselves more quota than is justified by science,” he said.
“This crisis has been ignored for too long.
“We hope that this action by Waitrose sends it to the top of the political agenda. We call on other retailers to follow Waitrose’s example.”
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