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A two-home, four-acre waterfront estate, collectively known as The Arsht Estate and located in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood, has sold for $106.875 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The price marks a new record for homes sold in Miami-Dade County and the first time a home in Miami has exceeded nine figures, listing agent Ashley Cusack, of the Ashley Cusack Team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty, reported.
The seller, businesswoman and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht, listed the property in January for $150 million, which also marked the priciest listing ever to hit the market in Miami-Dade County.
“As the steward of this beautiful property, I am proud to leave its legacy to the next generation of caretakers,” Arsht said in a statement. “May they also enjoy the breathtaking view!”
For now, the buyer, who was represented by Jill Hertzberg of the Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker, remains anonymous. Despite the property’s hefty price tag, the buyer seems to have debated little over buying the estate, which they first looked at in July.
The estate is not only historic for its record-breaking sale price, but also due to the identities of its past owners.
The oldest property on the estate is “Villa Serena,” a Mediterranean Revival-style home constructed in 1913 for former U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, who ran for president three times. Water views can be found in the home’s living room, dining room, sitting room, primary bedroom, office and guest room. Arsht purchased this house in the late 2000s for roughly $12 million and restored the home over more than four years and millions of dollars in renovations.
The estate’s other house, “Indian Spring,” was built by Arsht in 1999 on a plot of land owned at one time by Ziegfeld Follies’ star Peggy Hopkins Joyce and her husband, lumber magnate James Stanley Joyce. Arsht enlisted Jose A. Gelabert-Navia, formerly dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture, to design the home, all of whose living areas include views of Biscayne Bay. Arsht originally purchased the land for about $4 million in the late 1990s. The home features 20-foot tall ceilings and a grand foyer and staircase, as well as a primary bedroom suite that includes a full gym.
In total, the estate includes 12 bedrooms and about 25,000 square feet of living space. Additional structures include a two-bedroom carriage house that sits above a three-car garage and a two-bedroom, two-bathroom guesthouse above a six-car garage. Other amenities include a pool, pool house and outdoor tennis court.
Arsht grew up in Delaware and now divides her time between Miami, New York and Washington, D.C. She was previously head of TotalBank, her family-owned bank, which she sold to Banco Popular Español in 2007 for $300 million. Before that, Arsht was a practicing lawyer and founded her own title company. She was married to Myer Feldman, who passed away in 2007 and was former counsel to presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
Arsht has a long history of charitable giving — the Miami Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts was named in her honor following her $30 million donation to the organization in 2008. At the time of listing The Arsht Estate, she said she would donate the proceeds from the sale to charity but has yet to name which charity or charities.
Prior to this sale, the priciest transaction ever made in Miami-Dade County was the $93 million sale of three adjacent houses on Golden Beach to Phillip Ragon, founder of InterSystems.
