Texas farm supply businessman Chaz Neely is putting his Central Texas estate back on the auction block, seeking to nearly double what he paid for it less than a year ago.
Bidding for the 13-acre property at 8536 Armstrong Road, located near Belton between Austin and Waco, will begin on February 13 and conclude with a live auction at The Biltmore Miami-Coral Gables in Florida on February 28. Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions will manage the sale.
The estate features a 7,000-square-foot French Provincial-style home overlooking Salado Creek. The two-story residence includes six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, seven fireplaces, an elevator, coffered ceilings, and a copper dome above the foyer.
Concierge Auctions expects opening bids to start around $2 million. The seller’s agent, Debbie Stevenson of Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty, has set an asking price of $6 million. “We submitted it for the ModaMiami, which is the premier East Coast global auction platform for Sotheby’s — they do the really high-end cars at the same time — and the home was accepted,” Stevenson said.
The previous owners, H. Barton and Jean Jones, listed the property for $3.8 million in March last year. After hiring Stevenson and choosing to sell via auction, bidding opened at $2.1 million in June. Neely purchased it at auction in July for just under $3.2 million—a record sale for Bell County according to Stevenson.
Since acquiring the estate last year, Neely has made significant updates to the property.
Recent luxury auctions in Texas have seen final bids fall short of initial listing prices; a Southlake mansion sold for $14.2 million after being listed at $27.5 million and a Fort Worth castle went for $6.7 million after asking $11.8 million.
Neely is owner of San Antonio Steel Company and is active in philanthropy alongside his wife Patricia; they support organizations such as the Texas Public Policy Foundation based in Austin and have endowed a faculty chair at Texas A&M University.
The Neelys’ primary residence in San Antonio is also up for sale with an asking price of $7 million.
