Two new houses in Farrell Estates Wellington, a new development by The Farrell Companies in the Palm Beach Polo Golf & Country Club, are being transformed for two months into Holiday House designer showcases to raise money to battle breast cancer.
The first two of what is slated to be 27 houses, ranging from $6 million to $10 million in Wellington, Fl. are being presented as designer showcases known as Holiday House Wellington Showhouse.
Iris Dankner, a designer and breast cancer survivor, founded Holiday House in 2008 to use designers’ work to raise funds, often in places like the Hamptons and New York City, for breast cancer research.
The Opening Night Gala is on March 3, 2026, and it is open to the public from March 4 through May 3, 2026, as visitors see houses and designs, while raising money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
“Approximately 20 of the industry’s top interior designers will be designing their own chic rooms to showcase cutting-edge decor and lifestyle concepts, all while raising critical funds for breast cancer research,” is the way Dankner puts it.
The event will combine good design and a good cause, giving visitors a chance to see the work of the designers and the first houses of a beautiful development already attracting attention.
“We have some beautiful modern homes, but not ultra-modern,” Farrell Companies founder Joe Farrell says. “I think we brought our Hampton flair to Wellington and we brought the Farrell quality to Wellington.”
He says these houses will attract people who will help raise money, while also showing off the development.
“We’re excited about it. It’s, of course, a great cause,” Farrell says. “We’ll bring thousands of people into the Polo Club to see our beautiful new subdivision.”
Dankner, an interior designer diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40, says at that time “nobody spoke about breast cancer.”
“I found that fundraising could help me heal,” she says. “I started doing fundraising, was on the board of Susan G. Komen. I chaired the Race for the Cure. I was wearing two hats, fundraising and I was an interior designer.”
After finding herself juggling the equivalent of two jobs, she had the idea of using both together to get something done.
“I decided to combine my two passions, my love for interior design and my passion to eradicate breast cancer,” she says. “My idea was to do a fundraiser in my industry with a designer showcase.”
She founded Holiday House, transforming the Academy Mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and then houses in the Hamptons into designer showcases and fundraising engines.
Holiday House has provided more than $2 million to the charity that Dankner says invests 91 cents of every dollar to support its mission of ending breast cancer through research. She now sits on the advisory board of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
“Designers come in and design it soup to nuts,” Dankner says. “Once we get the house set up, we have an opening gala. Then the house is open to the public for two months.”
The Wellington project, the first time they have done two showcase houses, was born out of a conversation between Farrell and Dankner, who have known each other since she bought a Southampton house from him.
“I sold Iris a house 20 years ago. We’ve been friends,” Farrell says. “We bumped into each other at her showhouse in the Hamptons.”
Farrell says he had seen her designer show houses before and they were “gorgeous,” but that this meeting turned into something more.
“It was the first time I had seen him in many years,” Dankner says. “I think he was impressed by the amount of people and caliber of people we got to attend.”
They began talking about whether he would provide a house, which would help raise funds and attract attention to his new development. “I said, ‘I’ll give you two houses side by side,’” Farrell recalls.
“We’ve been doing a one-night fundraiser at the Colony Hotel with tabletop exhibitions,” says Dankner, who is celebrating 29 years as a breast cancer survivor. “People come to get tips on entertaining and see beautiful table settings. This year, we are creating a designer showhouse, after Joe Farrell offered his two new homes.”
Farrell has built smaller subdivisions in the Hamptons with half a dozen houses, and recently sold a mansion in Manalapan on the water. Wellington is known as an equestrian community, attracting horse owners from around the nation and the globe.
“When they come down, they have a lot of staff,” Farrell says. “Every house has many bedrooms.”
Farrell’s houses have open floor plans, including many with prime bedrooms on the first and second floors.
He says they expect to have five houses finished in a few weeks and seven soon after that. “Every house is different so far,” Farrell says.
For more information on Holiday House, visit holidayhousenyc.com
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