Crystal Waters, the lavish Siesta Key estate that arrived on the market with nearly three acres, 217 feet of bayfront and seemingly enough amenities to qualify as its own resort, has sold for $21.95 million.

The all-cash sale of 8501 Midnight Pass Road closed Sept. 17, making it the Sarasota area’s largest residential sale so far this year. The buyers are Julie and Edward Burke, leaving the estate with one lingering issue: whether a home called Crystal Waters can survive without a Crystal in residence.

The property’s name isn’t simply a reference to the water glittering beyond its windows. Crystal Waters was also named in part for Crystal Lahners, an ode to its owner and a reference to the property’s serene waterfront setting. Lahners is a Sarasota philanthropist and shareholder in Center for Sight, the eye-care company where her late husband, Sarasota ophthalmologist William “Bill” Lahners, was a partner; the couple also supported local causes including the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation and Child Protection Center.

The Lahners purchased the property for $3.125 million in 2019 and began creating the estate. Bill, who was also a medical director and surgeon at Center for Sight who was known locally as a pioneer in laser corrective eye surgery, died unexpectedly in December 2021 at age 53. Crystal went on to complete the home in 2024.

The new owners, the Burkes, are longtime Sarasota property owners who previously lived in Aurora, Illinois. Just three days before closing on Crystal Waters, they sold their 5,843-square-foot Harbor Acres home at 1372 Harbor Drive for $13.35 million. That suggests an upgrade with very little time spent between waterfront addresses.

Designed by Stofft Cooney Architects and custom-built by Chris Jorgensen of Florida West Builders, the property includes a 10,267-square-foot main residence and a roughly 1,700-square-foot Old Florida-style guesthouse. Together, they span roughly 12,000 square feet of air-conditioned living space, putting the sale price at about $1,829 per square foot.

That’s plenty of room for five bedrooms in the main house, another in the guesthouse and enough imported stone, custom millwork and European oak flooring to make an ordinary renovation feel shy. Atlanta designers Phoebe and Jim Howard handled the interiors, which lean polished and coastal without requiring every room to announce that Florida is nearby.

Outside, subtlety takes another well-earned vacation.

The estate has a 56-foot vanishing-edge saltwater pool, a tennis court with its own pavilion, tropical gardens, covered entertaining areas, waterfront seating and a 90-foot dock with a kayak launch and a 20,000-pound boat lift. Seven garage spaces provide lodging for the cars, presumably so none of them feels excluded.

Crystal Waters first hit the market for $31.5 million in February 2025. After the price dropped to $29,995,000 million that May, the property was taken off the market later that summer. It returned at the same price on June 8, 2026, went under contract on July 27 and closed on Sept. 17—101 days after it was relisted.

The final price of $21.95 million was $8.045 million (or 26.8 percent) below the latest asking price. 

For some market perspective, Sarasota County single-family homes sold for a median 94.7 percent of their original asking prices in August, based on data from the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee. That isn’t exactly an apples-to-apples comparison—unless one of the apples comes with stunning waterfront views, a tennis pavilion, seven garages and a boat lift capable of hoisting 20,000 pounds—but it shows how differently negotiations can unfold at the farthest edge of the luxury market.

The estate had already collected national attention before finding its buyer. Its 2025 market debut was covered by The Wall Street Journal and Robb Report. 

Lahners has owned other prominent Sarasota properties. In 2022, she sold a waterfront home at 1348 Point Crisp Road for $9 million. She later purchased a Palm Beach townhouse for $16.5 million in April 2025 and sold it five months later for $16 million—a tiny loss at those numbers.

For the Burkes, the move is less a change of lifestyle than a considerable expansion of it. They’ve gone from Harbor Acres waterfront to nearly three acres on Siesta Key, with a guesthouse, tennis court, 56-foot pool and enough dock and garage space that the boats and cars needn’t compete for attention.

Andrew Greenwell and Kelly Mooney of Douglas Elliman represented the buyer. Kim Ogilvie and Lynn Morris at Michael Saunders & Company represented the seller.