David Hoffmann, whose family companies have recently bought ferries to Michigan’s Mackinac Island and several newspapers, bought an $85 million mansion in Naples, Fla.
Hoffmann and his wife, Jerri, who have owned a home in the wealthy village of Winnetka north of Chicago since the 1990s but are now based in Florida, bought the eight-bedroom mansion with 250 feet of frontage on Naples Bay in mid-April through a land trust that conceals their names in public records.
On April 27, the agents who represented both the seller and the buyers in the transaction announced in a press release the Hoffmanns were the buyers of the property on Admiralty Way, an unusual move in residential real estate sales…