Lake Norman mansion for sale: $22M buys the house — and your own island

Joe Marusak
·5 min read
9

The Charlotte area’s most expensive home — which includes its own Lake Norman island — hit the market Friday for $22 million.

Merancas Island lies at the southern end of the lake in Huntersville, about 4 miles west of Interstate 77 Exit 25. Merancas, the name of both the island and the two-story mansion, is located off Sam Furr Road/N.C. 73 West and Hagers Ferry Road.

Many decades ago, packing untold tons of sand together, the island’s original owner created a narrow road to the island from a peninsula that connects to the mainland, said Ben Bowen of Premier Sotheby’s International Realty. He is marketing the home with colleague Jessica Grier.

The island is now no longer surrounded on all sides by water.

The $22M Charlotte mansion hit the market this week, one perched on its own Lake Norman Island. The mansion is located on Maracas Island in Huntersville, NC.
The $22M Charlotte mansion hit the market this week, one perched on its own Lake Norman Island. The mansion is located on Maracas Island in Huntersville, NC.

Charlotte’s most expensive mansion

At $22 million, Merancas Island represents the second-most expensive residential property ever in North Carolina, according to Premier Sotheby’s International Realty, based in Naples, Florida.

The mansion, at 14051 Island Drive, offers 360-degree views of the lake, according to its listing. The home and its 4.5-acre island went on the market at 8 a.m. Friday.

“It’s a private retreat on Lake Norman, almost 13,00 heated square feet, and just over 1,700 for the guest home,” Grier told The Charlotte Observer on a tour of the home and island Friday morning. “And there are plenty of spaces to enjoy outdoor living on this gorgeous island.”

Among the “countless features of this home,” Grier said, “one of my favorites is the living room that sits at the point of the island. You can sit in the living room and enjoy sunrise and sunset views. Or you can take a trip outside and go to one of the boat docks,” one facing east, the other west.

Photo studio fortune

Owners Cornelis and Johanna Mermans paid $1.5 million for the land in 1997 and completed their home two years later, according to Mecklenburg County public records.

The couple, now in their 80s, are part of a Charlotte family that made their fortune in a chain of photography studios dating to the late 1960s.

Formed in Charlotte and headquartered in Matthews, Photo Corporation of America operated its first test studio in a Kmart store in Detroit, Michigan, and quickly became the fastest growing company in North Carolina in the 1970s, according to Merancas.org, the website of the family’s charity, The Merancas Foundation.

In 2020, the foundation reported $42.4 million in total assets and $13 million in revenues for the year, ProPublica reported.

The backyard of Charlotte area’s priciest mansion hit the market this week, one perched on its own Lake Norman Island. The mansion is located on Maracas Island in Huntersville, NC. The owners are Cornelis and Johanna Mermans.
The backyard of Charlotte area’s priciest mansion hit the market this week, one perched on its own Lake Norman Island. The mansion is located on Maracas Island in Huntersville, NC. The owners are Cornelis and Johanna Mermans.

Based on this year’s countywide property revaluation, the mansion and island have a current total assessed value of nearly $6.8 million, Mecklenburg County public records show. It wasn’t immediately clear why the county valued the property $15 million below the current asking price.

Son Bryan Mermans said his parents are selling their home because the required upkeep at their age is too difficult for them. They are moving to the Regent at Eastover condominium community in Charlotte, Mermans told the Observer at the Merancas Island home Friday. He said he and his brother, Andy, and their families live in south Charlotte.

Bryan Mermans said he and his brother were away at college when their parents built the island home, but they and their families have always enjoyed visiting there. The mansion includes a children’s room with character murals on the walls

The property includes the grand main house, guest house, a gazebo dock and a boat dock, a tennis court, a garden shed and a doghouse and dog run, according to its property listing. The doghouse was the first in Mecklenburg County to require a building permit, Bowen said.

The indoor pool at Charlotte area’s priciest mansion. The $22M home hit the market this week, one perched on its own Lake Norman Island.
The indoor pool at Charlotte area’s priciest mansion. The $22M home hit the market this week, one perched on its own Lake Norman Island.

Dance studio, sculpture garden

Charlotte architect Harry Schrader designed the primary residence, which has three bedrooms, six bathrooms, a gourmet kitchen, elevator, floor-to-ceiling windows, four waterfalls, multiple terraces and an indoor pool heated year-round.

A spiral staircase leads to a library and to a hidden access that leads to the primary bedroom suite.

The home also includes an exercise room, dance studio, recreation room, a temperature-controlled wine cellar and a primary shower with 12 fixtures.

Schrader’s design gave the couple sunrise views each morning from their main breakfast room, Grier said. All other breakfast rooms, along with the family room and the library above it, also face east.

Copper and leaded glass inlays can be found throughout the mansion, including a divider between the family room and music room. Charlotte designer-architect Boris Tomic created the inlaid clay artwork that graces the tall stone fireplace near the entrance to the home.

A sculptures is seen at the Merancas Island on Lake Norman in Huntersville. The Charlotte area’s priciest mansion hit the market this week, one perched on its own Lake Norman Island.
A sculptures is seen at the Merancas Island on Lake Norman in Huntersville. The Charlotte area’s priciest mansion hit the market this week, one perched on its own Lake Norman Island.

The property includes a koi pound, sculpture garden and a three-car attached garage. A two-story guest house has 1,600 square feet of living space, a kitchen, balcony, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, three garage bays and boat storage.

Deer visit each morning and love to munch on Johanna Mermans’ rose bushes, much to her dismay, Grier said. However, as she told Grier, “‘They’re so pretty, I won’t stop them.’”

Grier said many mansions she’s sold over the years never neared the homey feel of this one despite its size.

“This house is a home,” she said. “It’s like a resort you keep wanting to go back to. There’s nothing like it in Charlotte.”

The $22M Charlotte mansion hit the market this week, one perched on its own Lake Norman Island. The mansion is located on Maracas Island in Huntersville, NC.
The $22M Charlotte mansion hit the market this week, one perched on its own Lake Norman Island. The mansion is located on Maracas Island in Huntersville, NC.