Veteran business leader and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht has hoisted her lavish, one-of-a-kind compound in South Florida onto the market with a gigantic $150 million price tag, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Situated directly on Biscayne Bay, in the affluent Coconut Grove enclave of Miami, the place would set a record for the priciest single residential transaction in Miami-Dade County if it goes for anywhere remotely close to that amount — eclipsing the recent sale of a waterfront mansion on Miami Beach’s Star Island that sold in December for $75 million.
Originally acquired for a total of $16 million by Arsht — a former attorney and banking executive widely recognized for her $30 million contribution to Miami’s arts center, which was renamed the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts — the property spans four full acres adjacent to the Vizcaya Museum & Gardens. The Arsht Estate features a pair of two-story homes known as Indian Spring and Villa Serena, along with several ancillary structures. In sum, there’s over 25,000 square feet of living space with 12 bedrooms and 17 baths, all of it offering up sweeping views of the bay, Key Biscayne and downtown Miami.
Constructed by Arsht in the late 1990s on land once owned by Ziegfeld Follies star Peggy Hopkins Joyce and her then-husband, millionaire lumberman James Stanley Joyce, Indian Spring was designed by architect Jose Gelabert-Navia and serves as the primary residence. Geared toward large-scale entertaining, the five-bedroom house features a courtyard for greeting guests and formal fireside living room, as well as a grand salon boasting a carved ceiling and French doors spilling out to an al fresco dining terrace. A formal dining room seats up to 20 and the family room is affectionately known as the “garden room.”
Other highlights include a gourmet kitchen outfitted with a center island and two butler’s pantries, wood-paneled office and rotunda offering panoramic city views. Upstairs, a sumptuous master retreat has dual balconies, walk-in closets and baths; and outdoors, there’s a full-size tennis court and pool that has a duo of baths carved into the coral rock beneath its deck, plus a two-bedroom, two-bath guest suite and gym atop the six-car garage.
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Image Credit: MLS As for Villa Serena (below), the Mediterranean Revival-style structure was built in 1913 by former U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan on what was then referred to as “Millionaire’s Row.” Designed by the late architect August Geiger, and acquired by Arsht in 2007, the three-bedroom home has since been meticulously restored and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
Open living spaces downstairs are punctuated throughout with Cuban tile floors, and include a marble-clad kitchen outfitted with dual islands and high-end appliances, as well as a private office opening to a courtyard. A second-floor primary suite overlooking the water comes equipped with an office, while an additional guest bedroom shares a luxe bath with a garden-view guest room. There’s also a two-bedroom carriage house with its own kitchen nestled above the detached three-car garage, and another structure containing two full baths.
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Image Credit: MLS A native of Delaware, 79-year-old Arsht splits her time between New York, Miami and Washington, D.C., where in 2020 she paid $10 million for a home built in 1893 for Nevada Sen. Francis Newlands. Arsht plans to maintain a residence in Miami, and also will donate proceeds from the sale of the Arsht Estate to as-yet-unnamed charities.
Ashley Cusack of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty serves as the listing agent.