- April 24, 2024
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Photos courtesy of Alan Messer
Photos courtesy of Alan Messer
Photos courtesy of Alan Messer
Photos courtesy of Alan Messer
Photos courtesy of Alan Messer
Photos courtesy of Alan Messer
Photos courtesy of Alan Messer
Photos courtesy of Alan Messer
The swimming pool, made with glass tile, has a lazy river that wraps around the house. A 90-foot dock floats on the Intracoastal Waterway. The expansive driveway is made of brick — with the bricks inserted into the ground the long way, meaning only the tips are visible.
Alan Messer recently sold the home at 42 Island Estates Parkway, for $2.4 million, two years after Messer bought it from the original owner, Bobby Ginn.
Ginn was one of the most important developers in Flagler County history, developing Hammock Beach. He has since moved to the Carolinas, according to Messer.
Messer said Ginn was visionary and charismatic. “If you met him, you’d say, ‘I want to be his friend,’” Messer said.
Messer, 70, made his living by manufacturing shoes with licensed names on them, such as Disney’s The Little Mermaid or other characters. He made 7,000 shoes a day at the height of his career, but he became more interested in real estate and eventually sold his business. He built 31 homes in the next 15 years and then helped to start a First Coast Sotheby’s office in Palm Coast because he thought the Sotheby’s name would elevate the real estate market for high-end homes; since then he has been an agent, specializing in unique luxury properties.
The former Ginn home was intended to be the place where Messer would host his children and grandchildren in the future, but it required too much work to rehabilitate the overgrown property; Messer said his wife was in an accident, and they decided to sell it to a couple from South Florida.
Between the main home and a guest house, the property is 2.67 acres and has five bedrooms, seven bathrooms and 7,262 square feet.
The defining characteristic of the home is the pool, which, according to Messer, “was built by the same people who built the Hammock [Beach Resort pool], and it rivals it in size.” Messer said that when he decided to have the pool cleaned, it needed to be emptied first. To do that, he had to get an insurance policy, and the pool alone was valued at $2.5 million, he said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “There are waterfalls and a lazy river. It goes around the entire property, almost.”
"I love the place," he added. "It would be a great family retreat."
