Miami mansion Casa Casuarina, built for Gianni Versace, listed with US$125 million hopes as owner fights foreclosure
Casa Casuarina, the ornately decorated South Beach Miami mansion built for the late fashion designer Gianni Versace, has been listed with US$125 million (A$126.5 million) hopes.
The iconic Mediterranean-style estate has 10 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms – all Versace’s design – with the style kept by its current vendor, the telecommunications entrepreneur Peter Loftin.
The mansion was built in 1930 by architect Alden Freeman, an heir to the Standard Oil fortune, in tribute to the Alcazar de Colon, Christopher Columbus's family home in the Dominican Republic.
The Italian designer was gunned down on the steps of his home in 1997 by Andrew Cunanan.
He’d purchased the 1930s property in 1992 for US$2.05 million and spent around US$33 million to renovated and extend it into a residence of over 2,140 square metres after his 1993 purchase of the now-demolished Revere Hotel for $3.7 million.
The mansion at 1116 Ocean Drive was sold to Peter Loftin for $19 million shortly after Versace’s death in 2000, making it his private residence until 2009 when he transformed it into a boutique hotel and restaurant. Loftin is fighting a foreclosure action.
It’s been reported the foreclosure action on the property was filed last December by VM South Beach LLC, which bought a $25 million mortgage on the property from a German bank, WestLB.
VM South Beach is affiliated with the Nakash family of New York, which controls Jordache Enterprises. Jordache is involved in assorted ventures from denim jeans to various hotels, including several on Miami Beach.
Ralph Bekkevold, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig, who represents VM South Beach in the foreclosure action, confirmed that the mortgage holder "purchased the promissory note from the German bank and is seeking to foreclose”.
It’s been listed by the luxury property superbrokers Jill Hertzberg and Jill Eber of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, who operate as The Jills.
Its hotel operators the Villa by Barton G have an eight-year lease. Barton G. Weiss, the proprietor of the Miami Beach hotel business, says a 10-year lease was signed in 2010 with an option to extend for 10 additional years.
Photographs copyright TheJills
