$2.5M Home of Late Chick-fil-A Founder Still Looking for a Buyer to Bite

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The sprawling Florida vacation home owned by the late founder of Chick-fil-A is still looking for a buyer. The 7,210-square-foot home boasts six bedrooms, six bathrooms, and two half-baths and sits on 9.2 acres at the Sugar Mill Country Club in New Smyrna Beach, FL.

The $2.5 million list price hasn’t wavered, despite the property being on the market for more than 730 days.

Known as the Lodge at Sugar Mill Golf & Country Club, the estate was beloved by Truett Cathy, one of America’s few self-made billionaires.

The company claims Cathy invented the modern chicken sandwich in the 1960s, when a chicken producer offered to sell him a steady supply of irregularly sized chicken breasts that had been rejected by Delta Airlines because they didn’t fit the airline’s food trays. Today, there are more than 2,000 Chick-fil-A restaurants in 46 states.

Pool

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Deck with water view

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The company, which remains family-owned, is closed on Sundays, reflecting the family’s religious beliefs. Cathy taught Sunday school for 50 years, before his death in 2014 at the age of 93.

The Cathy family bought the home in the 1980s, and used it as both a vacation getaway and an executive retreat, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal. As of 2015, the family owned more than 80 properties in the New Smyrna Beach area.

The property looks more like an executive retreat than a single-family home. There’s a 15-car parking lot and two tennis courts. The four bedrooms shown in the listing are set up nearly identically, giving the appearance of hotel rooms. There’s a lighted “Exit” sign over the glass doors in the living room.

Living room

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The home sits on the edge of a 3-acre lake, overlooking the third tee of the golf course. There’s a heated pool in the courtyard. Inside, the living room has exposed wooden beams, tongue-and-groove cedar paneling, a floor-to-ceiling glass wall, fireplace, bar, and multiple sitting areas.

The chef’s kitchen is anchored by an island, with a six-burner gas range and commercial-grade ventilation system. There are two Jenn-Air refrigerators, two dishwashers, and custom cabinetry. The formal dining room comfortably fits 14 people. Elsewhere, there’s an entertainment room with another bar and a pool table.

Cathy made headlines in 2008 when three girls, aged 11 and 12, broke into the home and caused $30,000 in damages—spraying fire extinguishers, scrawling profanities on the walls, throwing eggs, and using vegetable oil to turn the dining table into a “slip and slide,” the News-Journal reported at the time.

Rather than pursuing criminal charges against the girls, Cathy worked out a deal with their parents where the girls would do four things: Write “I will not vandalize other people’s property” 1,000 times, not play video games or watch TV for six months, read books for three hours a day, and submit weekly book reports to him for 13 weeks.

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