by Miranda G. McLeod
Staff Writer
A lot of people have the fantasy of owning their own island, and Wade Hampton of Manormor Realty would love to make that fantasy a reality.
Manormor Realty is a franchise of Sotherby’s International Realty located in San Jose. Hampton has been with the company for nearly seven years, but the listing of Sand Penny Island near Fernandina Beach is his first piece of property surrounded by water.
Located in the Oyster Bay Yacht Club and less than an hour from Jacksonville, Hampton lists Sand Penny Island, a 2.25-acre island with marshland views at every pivot point. There’s a main house and a guest house on the island, both built in 1999. There are five islands in the Oyster Bay community; three have been set aside as preserves and two were sold for residential use. But only Sand Penny Island is on the market — and it could be your fantasy-turned-reality for $5.25 million.
The main house on the island has 11,400 square feet under cover and more than 7,000 of that is air-conditioned space. It’s anchored by 67 pilings to bedrock and all the windows have unobtrusive storm shutters. Nearly every corner of the house has large windows that overlook the marsh.
“The house was built like a fortress,” said Hampton.
“The exterior has three-quarter inch plywood, steel sheeting and three inches of concrete, steel and stucco.”
Power comes from a 40,000-kilowatt generator powered by four, 100-gallon propane tanks. There are two pumping stations for the house, with a drain field more than 2,000 feet away from the property.
The new homeowner can connect to public water or sewer if they wish, said Hampton. “There is no public water or sewer, but there’s a purification system and pump house on the property.”
The house has 14 rooms altogether, with four bedrooms and four bathrooms.
There are two ways to get to Sand Penny Island. The first is to travel through Oyster Bay Yacht Club, a gated 325-home yacht club community on 900-acres of marshfront, lakefront and wood preserves with an Old Florida Coastal-inspired architectural setting where there are plenty of large oaks and Spanish moss.
Sand Penny Island can also be directly reached by boat. A large dock is just a short walk from the house. The dock extends to a boathouse with two boat lifts and two large, floating docks. There is space for berthing large yachts in the deep water that flows to the Intracoastal Waterway, which is less than five miles from the Atlantic Ocean. Hampton said the dock could easily accommodate a 65-foot boat, but he’s seen a 100-foot boat dock there with no problems.