Brief History of Sopra Mare & Bordo Mare

 

Sopra Mare was built in 2009 and Bordo Mare was built in 2014 by Mike "Mulley" Mullen.  Mulley operated both villas as rental properties until April 2025 when he sold them to the current owners, Mike & Lori Rowen.  Mulley started a blog in 2013 (https://mikemullenblog.wordpress.com) during the construction of Bordo Mare that attracted quite the following over the years.  Once Bordo Mare was completed Mulley evolved his blog into a newsletter that provides updates on the villas and St. John more broadly.  Mulley graciously handed over the keys to the newsletters so it is continuing on under the new villa ownership.  If you wish to subscribe just enter your email at the bottom of this page.

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Bordo Mare and Sopra Mare continue to be among the most sought after 2 bedroom villas on the island.  Guests continue to appreciate what Mulley built and the amenities he built in from the start (private pools, accordion doors, full A/C, internal stairs, well equipped kitchens, the list goes on).  When we saw these villas listed for sale we immediately took notice of the excellent reviews of the villas and the well run business that Mulley built.  We jumped at the chance to buy these phenomenal villas and have every intention of investing in them every year so they keep delivering top-notch vacation experiences for our guests.

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About the New Owners Mike & Lori Rowen

We are retired with two adult children (one married) and call Old Town Alexandria (a Virginia suburb of DC) our home.​  We have owned multiple rental homes in Hilton Head SC over the years but chose to sell them in the post pandemic real estate boom in 2022 when we retired.  We traditionally bought fixer upper rental homes, invested heavily to modernize them while building a repeat guest following and direct booking websites to save our guests money on fees charged by the major travel websites.  It's a new experience for us buying rental properties that don't need fixing up, but that didn't stop us from creating a rapidly growing list of improvements and upgrades that we have planned for both villas over the coming months and years.  Our quarterly newsletter will provide ongoing updates on villa improvements.

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​We built this website to continue our tradition of helping guests save money by booking direct with the owner.  Our philosophy is to give all of the savings from both avoided guest service fees and avoided owner commissions to our guests.  This means we make the same amount whether a guest books on VRBO, Airbnb, or this website while our guests save 15% to 20%.  We chose www.StJohnSeaVillas.com as the website and brand for direct booking of our villas.  The two red roofed villas in our logo are an artist's interpretation of Bordo Mare and Sopra Mare with palm trees and ocean waves to set the vibe for a peaceful vacation retreat. 

 

We are open to any and all ideas on how to improve our villas and for new services we can offer guests to make their vacations even better.  It took us a few years in Hilton Head to identify high quality fishing charter captains, in-home masseuses, personal chefs, photographers, and so on.  We will be on the lookout for similar high quality service providers on St. John and will be adding their contact info and links to our pre-arrival emails and website over time.

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Thank you for taking the time to visit our website.  We look forward to hosting you in our St. John Sea Villas!