By: Ellen Cans
Businesswoman and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht has sold her Florida estate, setting a new price record in the county.
As reported by the NY Post, on Friday, the listing broker confirmed the sale of the estate which was sold for $106.87 million. The hefty price tag sets a new high sales record for Miami-Dade County, and is also the first Miami home to sell for nine figures. Arsht had initially listed the estate for sale in January asking $150 million—the ask price itself also set a record as the most expensive single-family home in history to list in Miami Dade. The previous record for the high-dollar deal was set earlier in 2022, when by InterSystems founder Phillip Ragon’s paid about $93 million for three adjacent Atlantic Ocean-front homes in Golden Beach.
In this $106.87 million transaction, the purchaser’s identity was not disclosed. As per listing brokerage Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty, the buyer had first visited the property in July and the deal had moved along very swiftly. “As the steward of this beautiful property, I am proud to leave its legacy to the next generations of caretakers,” Arsht commented in a press statement. “May they also enjoy the breathtaking view!”
The 4-acre compound in situated in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood, close to the Vizcaya Museum. It boasts unobstructed waterfront views of key Biscayne and downtown Miami. It also features 400 feet of elevated water frontage. The estate includes two separate houses spanning roughly 25,000 square feet of living space and a total of 12 bedrooms. The main residence is named Indian Spring, which Arsht built in 1999, tapping Jose A. Gelabert-Navia for the design. Indian Spring features a great room, living room and impressive formal dining room with seating for 20-plus guests. The master bedroom suite has a full gym, and this home has a pool and a lighted tennis court. It also has a garage for six cars, and an upstairs apartment with an office space.
Arsht had purchased the land for Indian Spring in the late 1990s for about $4 million. That site had previously been owned by the Ziegfeld Follies star Peggy Hopkins Joyce and her then-husband, the lumber magnate James Stanley Joyce. The other residence is named Villa Serena, and dates back to 1913. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Arsht restored this home after she purchased it in the late 2000s for roughly $12 million.
When she had first listed the home, Ms. Arsht had already decided that she would donate the proceeds of the estate’s sale to charity. She is still deciding which charity or charities will be the beneficiaries. Arsht, 80, is already a generous philanthropist.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy ranked Arsht number 39 on its 2008 list of America’s 50 biggest donors. In 2008, she made a $30 million contribution to Miami-Dade County’s Performing Arts Center, which was renamed the Adrienne Arsht Center. She is on the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center, University of Miami and non-profit organization, Amigos For Kids. She is also on the Advisory Council of the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project. Born to a prominent Jewish family in Delaware, she worked as a lawyer, and had also run her family-owned bank, TotalBank. Under her leadership, the bank grew from 4 to 14 locations, with more than $1.4 billion in assets. She subsequently sold the bank to Banco Popular Español for $300 million in 2007. She was married to the late Myer Feldman, a former counsel to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
