Feb. 9. By Dave Yochum. A well-appointed lakefront home on 1.25 acres of property on Lola

DAVID DUNN

Circle has sold for $1.85 million after being listed at $2.2 million by David Dunn of Premier Sotheby’s International Realty in Jetton Village.

It sold for $517 a square foot, most likely a record for a Cornelius property. The property, which has 416 feet of shoreline, is at the end of Lola Circle, a small street off Bethel Church before it cuts over to Staghorn.

The buyers are from Florida and will use the house as a lake home for special occasions over the next 3-5 years.

Then they are expected to “tear it down and build their dream home,” Dunn said. The existing home, while perfectly fitted out and full of amenities, has only 3,281 square feet of living area, small by lakefront standards, at least when a large lot is involved.

High-price lots are moving fast in Cornelius, with modest homes on lakefront lots ripe for tearing down.

The high-end real estate markets in Lake Norman, Myers Park and Eastover are sizzling with an influx of buyers from out of state and even Thurston Howell types from out of the country.

Cornelius, thanks to Lake Norman and its proximity to Charlotte, is attracting them for sure. Town Planning Director Wayne Herron says more than a half dozen $2 million homes have been built in Cornelius during the past two years.

The Lola Circle house was on the market for eight months, not that long for a house in this price range. The house is assessed at $1.227 million, according to Mecklenburg tax records. It sold for $1.262 million back in 2005.

Dunn himself is something of a business celebrity. He was the founder and president of Managed CareUSA, a business that grew to 275 full-time employees and more than $125 million in annual premiums.

After selling the firm in 2001, he became Vice Chancellor at UNC-Charlotte, his alma mater—class of 1980.

He and his wife Jenifer are re-doing a house on Yardarm in The Peninsula.