Who knew food could make someone THAT rich? Well, here’s a look at “The Mega Mansions That Food Built”. The owners of these incredible mega mansions all made their money by selling some sort of food product.

Mega Mansion #1 – Pictures #1-4 - This mega mansion is located off of Pelican Crest Drive in the guard gated Pelican Hill community of Newport Coast, FL. It is owned by Paul Merage, the founder of Hot Pockets. Paul and his brother David Merage co-founded the frozen microwave snack Hot Pockets, Lean Pockets, and Crossiant Pockets. The brothers later sold  Hot Pockets company to Nestle for $2.6 billion.

It is easily in excess of 30,000 square feet and features a tennis court, guest house, swimming pool and a pool house!

Mega Mansion #2 – Pictures #5-8 - This mega mansion is located at 5501 W Hamilton Road S in Fort Wayne, IN. The estate is owned by Richard Freeland, who has been the President and CEO of Pizza Hut of Fort Wayne, Inc and six affiliated companies that own and operate more than 40 Pizza Hut franchised restaurants in Indiana and Ohio. It is supposedly over 30,000 square feet in size and cost $35,000,000 to build. It was designed by Charlan Brock & Associates.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES

Mega Mansion #3 – Pictures #9-12 - This 40,000 square foot mega mansion is located on Stone Gate Road in Louisville, KY. It is owned by John Schnatter, who is the founder, chairman, and CEO of the Papa John’s pizza chain. The castle-like mansion was designed by Don Evans, an Orlando architect. It also has a multilevel subterranean garage with 22 parking spaces, an office for valet parking, a built-in car wash and a giant motorized turntable to help move limousines. It is divided into 14 parking spaces for the family on one level and eight spaces for guests on another, with an elevator between the two floors. John had a net worth of $402.6 million back in 2006, a figure that has definitely risen over recent years.

Mega Mansion #4 – Pictures #13-16- This 26,000+ square foot mega mansion is located on La Jolla Farms Road in La Jolla, CA. It is owned by supermarket billionaire Ronald Burkle who had a net worth of $3.2 billion in 2011. It has 9 bedrooms, 13.5 bathrooms, a gate/guest house, tennis court with pavilion and a swimming pool.

Mega Mansion #5 – Pictures #17-20 - This 25,000+ square foot mega mansion is located on Holland Drive in Cumming, GA. It is owned by Tommy Bagwell, who is the CEO of American Proteins, Inc., which processes livestock byproducts for use in products such as dog food and cattle feed. It features a multi-level garage, swimming pool, tennis court and is waterfront!

Over 3 years ago we did a post on this massive mega mansion located at 5501 W Hamilton Road S in Fort Wayne, IN. The estate is owned by Richard Freeland, who has been the President and CEO of Pizza Hut of Fort Wayne, Inc and six affiliated companies that own and operate more than 40 Pizza Hut franchisedrestaurants in Indiana and Ohio. It is supposedly over 30,000 square feet in size and cost $35,000,000 to build.

It was designed by Charlan Brock & Associates.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES 

More info from Dupontcastle.com -

On 1-20-10, I received e-mail that said:

There are three houses on the farm. The lake was man made and it took about a year to finish. About at that time my new house which is directly next to the barn was being built along with the barn that was in the place of my old house. The “big house” what we called the mansion you are talking about was being started roughly the same time. The big house was near 48,000 sq feet and it took around 15 years to complete.

The house does not have a presidential suite although Dick is good freinds with the Bushes and they have visited a number of times. The house does sort of have a jungle section with a bunch of tropical plants, we called this room the green room. They kept their birds in this room and some fish in the bottom of a fountain. The house does not have a helicopter pad on top. It does have a lot of rooms along with a library. The house has 4 story’s 5 if you count the attic which is like a bunch of long hallways leading to other parts of the home. It also has 2 old style elavators with the sliding cages that you would see in a old hotel. The house also has a large wine room and a large walk in freezer.

The pond is stocked with bluegill catfish bass and walleye. The barn has I think 10 stalls along with what we called ” the tack room” which is pretty much like a really nice living room and small kitchen. Above it is a bedroom with one bunkbed and one regular bed and a bathroom. Also, the house is known to everybody else in Fort Wayne as the pizza hut mansion not castle.

This gated mega estate is located on N Michigan Road in Indianapolis, Indiana and is owned by Christel Dehaan. Christel married Jon DeHaan, founder of Resort Condominiums International. They divorced in 1987 and the court awarded her half of  the company. She bought the remainder from her ex-husband 2 years later for $67.5 million; expanded it, sold to HFS (now Cendant) in 1996 for $825 million. She was worth an estimated $750 million back in 2003. She started the Christel House charity and plans to donate the estate to them when she dies. The estate boasts a long driveway, 25,000+ square foot main house, swimming pool, tennis court, detached garage, power plant and a massive man-made lake.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE HOME IN GOOGLE MAPS

This 48-acre estate is located at 3290 S US Highway 421 in Zionsville, IN. It was built in 1998 and boasts 13,001 square feet of living space with 5 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms, formal living and dining rooms, great room, family room, gourmet kitchen, breakfast room, office, large custom bar, gym with sauna, indoor hot tub, rec room, indoor half basketball court, swimming pool with spa, pool house, barn, tennis court and more. It is listed at $4,480,000. Overall, this is a great estate with tons of amenities and acreage, but the interior decor is HORRENDOUS. It’s a drab, old-fashioned mess.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LISTING

This 20 acre estate is located at 4513 W County Road 144 in Bargersville, IN. It was built in 2004 and boasts  15,004 square feet of living space with 6 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, home theater, gym, wine cellar, indoor basketball court, large terrace, swimming pool with pool house, lighted tennis court, detached garage and more. It is listed at $3,900,000.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LISTING

Stephen Hilbert’s Carmel, Indiana mansion, dubbed Le Chateau Renaissance, sold this past week for just $3 million at auction. The winning bidder was Forrest Lucas, the founder of Lucas Oil Products Inc. He bought it from CNO Financial Group Inc who seized the estate from its former chief executive, Stephen Hilbert, five years ago. Forrest paid in cash and got quite the steal for the 25,000 square foot estate, considering it’s original asking price of $20 million. Before the auction took place, the home was on the market for $9.9 million. WOW!! What an amazing deal! The house does need some updating, but you can’t complain with $120 a square foot and the huge list of amenities you’re getting with that!!

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE