Latin Singer-Songwriter Ricardo Montaner Lists Miami Beach Home For $11M
Ricardo Montaner, the South American singer-songwriter who is famous for singing love songs. Over the course of his 30+ year career, he has sold over 22 million albums and I want to sing 22 million love songs to his Miami Beach waterfront estate, which hit the market this week for $11 million.
I showed this Miami Beach luxury home several years back, when it was being quietly offered as an off-market deal and there is just something special about the place. The property is located at 4950 Pinetree Drive in Miami Beach. It is a corner lot on a secluded part of the street that is extremely quiet despite being in the middle of Miami Beach. Because the house osits on a 46,000 square foot corner lot, the estate boasts a whopping 400 linear feet of water frontage!! That’s more than most condo developments!
The house owned by Ricardo Montaner was constructed in 1939 and could use a bit of modernization but is absolutely stunning. There is a gorgeous atrium that I could imagine having fabulous dinner parties in, or a romantic dinner for 2 in a setting so disgustingly romantic, it would be fit for The Bachelor TV show. The poolside cabana is large enough to be a single family home of its own, with a rooftop observation deck.
Overall, the house has nearly 8,000 square feet of living space under a/c with 8 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms and 1 half bath. Sadly, I did not see the Ricardo Montaner home on the list at the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board. I’ll be praying that whoever is the ultimate buyer of the property doesn’t destroy this gem to make way for a gauche McMansion with drop ceilings in the gameroom.
3900 Alton Brings Convenience, Style & Tranquility To Mid-Beach
Nestled just between the 41st Street business district and the Biscayne Bay is a 10 acre development site that will soon be home to a boutique building, 3900 Alton. The project was designed by Richard Bofill and will have 78 units in 8 floors.
Each of the residences will have a chef-grade Poliform kitchen with Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances, 10 foot ceilings, floor to ceiling energy efficient windows, frameless glass showers and Savant Home Automation systems. The 3 garden residences will have lush private gardens designed by Naturalficial, other units will have spacious balconies with glass railings. All residences will come with one parking space, 24 hour valet for guests and access to the Tesla House car. Each owner will receive VIP access to the Beach Club at the Nobu Hotel and Eden Roc. Many residences will have private elevators, and this is one of the only projects in the area that also has Shabbat elevators for those who observe.
Onsite amenities include a 3rd floor landscaped pool terrace with lounge seating, sunset bay view deck, lounging cabanas and daybeds, a children’s pool, a poolside refreshment & cocktail bar, towel service as well as a summer kitchen and yoga area. Art installations for the lobby, pool deck and other common areas are by Loris Cecchini, Fernando Mastrangelo, Philip Taaffe and Christoph Keller. Indoors, residents will enjoy a private dining room, children’s playroom, secure wine vault and storage, a light-filled fitness center with sauna, steam and changing area, 24 hour business center and social lounge with gaming area, library and media room.
The VIP Beach Club membership will give residents access to cabanas, beach lounges, towel service and beach butlers as well as preferential access to golfing and tennis at the Miami Beach Golf Club. The building will have community paddle boards, kayaks and bicycles for the residents, with the house car available to take people to Sunset Harbour or the Eden Roc.
Aside from the features and amenities, I really like the location of this project. It is in the middle of an area that is largely residential with single family homes, so a luxury condo development is refreshing. The views are spectacular and the project is walking distance to both the Talmudic University, multiple synagogues as well as the St. Patrick’s church and school. Mt. Sinai Hospital is the biggest employer on Miami Beach and is a bike ride away, along with the 41st Street business district. The access to the Julia Tuttle is very easy for those who would like to visit the Design District, Midtown, Brickell or Downtown, among other attractions on the mainland.
The construction is slated to begin early this year, with completion in 2019. Prices start just under $800,000 for 1 bedroom plus den garden residences up to $2.3 million for a 2,100 square foot 4 bedroom residence. See below for the 10+ acre site plan, renderings video, sample views and sales brochure. What do you think?
Checking in on Construction of the Betsy Hotel’s Expansion, Including its Bridge Pool
The substantial expansion of the Betsy Hotel in South Beach, historically named the Betsy Ross, is well, well underway as the luxury boutique hotel grows into the adjacent art deco Carlton Hotel by an ally bridge, and a set of new buildings to the north of that which are being connected together at the roof level with a bridge pool. The expansion is being designed by Shulman + Associates, of Miami.
It’s not quite that crazy hotel in Singapore that holds up a gigantic boomerang in the sky, but looking at the pool enclosure from below shows you just how thrilling it could be when it’s done. Take a look at the rest of the expansion in these pictures.
Bigger Bass Museum Reopening in Time for its Annual Art Basel Blowout, December 1st.
The Bass Museum of Art has announced it will reopen this December 1st, with its interior improvements and four new galleries, when its opening will coincide with the first day of Art Basel Miami Beach which is also the day the Bass traditionally hosts its big Basel party.
The museum will have 50% more gallery space within the same building footprint in a much more efficient layout designed by the talented architects Arata Isozaki and David Gauld. Gone, somewhat sanguinely will be that dramatic, and space hogging grand ramp that ascended to the upstairs gallery.
It would be hard to imagine finding space in the old museum to put up separate substantial shows by three noteworthy artists simultaneously. ArtInfo reports, however, that the new Bass will open with solo exhibitions by Ugo Rondinone, Mika Rottenberg, and Pascale Marthine Tayou, taking advantage of all those new spaces to show more art.
New Zika Zone is Almost All of South Beach
Photo by Phillip Pessar.
Five new locally transmitted cases of Zika, two locals and three tourists, have appeared in South Beach within the box of 8th and 28th Streets, spanning the Atlantic Ocean to Biscayne Bay, reports the Miami Herald. This isn’t good. Governor Scott announced this as Miami’s second Zika Zone of active transmission. As the Herald says:
Aerial spraying cannot be conducted amid the high rises and ocean breezes of Miami Beach because the airplanes fly low, about 100 feet above the ground, Frieden said. But crowds of tourists on Miami Beach, and the abundance of people in bathing suits and exposed skin, means more people may be infected.
Although there is controversy over the spraying (as it kills mosquito predators too) this is not good. Check out the Herald’s map of the affected area here.
Forget Dispensers, Miami Beach Needs Seagulls That Poop Sunscreen
Forget those complementary sunscreen dispensers, Miami Beach needs these robotic seagulls that poop sunscreen from a hilariously bad add campaign called “Care from the air”. The campaign was entered into the Cannes-for-advertising (it’s in Cannes), the Titanium Grand Prix, by sunscreen company Nivea, and mocked by the jury committee before it lost. In Adweek, Sir John Hagerty, an advertising legend and Jury member, said: “”You should see it,” he said. “It’s the most stupid thing I think I’ve seen in my whole life. I actually thought the Monty Python team had gotten together and entered it into [Cannes], to see if we would vote for it.”
40 S Hibiscus Sells For $9.35M
Earlier this afternoon, the ultra-modern, waterfront home located at 40 South Hibiscus Drive in Miami Beach sold for $9.35M, or $1,169 per square foot. The 8,000 square foot mansion has 8 bedrooms, 8 baths, 2 half baths and resides on a 24,000 square foot lot with 120 feet of prime waterfront and a boat dock. The luxury home sold in 329 days at roughly a 33 percent discount from its initial asking price of $13,995,000. For more information and pictures regarding the luxury home located at 40 South Hibiscus Drive, refer to the piece I wrote about it in October 2010.
