This $10.9 million waterfront home in Miami Beach’s exclusive, uber-private Hibiscus Island was made for entertaining, and perhaps that’s no accident since its builder, John Turchin, was instrumental in creating Miami’s club scene.
Turchin built the quirky house in 2003 with the idea of uniting old-world style with state-of-the-art features. Taking inspiration from Grecian pools, he designed a double-decker pool and fountains with stone footbridges and moats connecting various parts of the property and a spiral staircase that descends right into the water. While there’s ample space on the pool deck for party-goers, revelers can also take the fun up to the rooftop terrace, where there’s a captain’s watchtower and giant, windmill-like boat sails for shade that fan out from the 50-foot tower. From the pool, look straight out to Biscayne Bay, and from the roof, the sightlines stretch to Star and Palm Islands.
The 19,000-square-foot home’s eclectic interior styling borrows traditions from the Keys, the Far East, the Wild West and Hollywood. Think beachy-kitsch, seashell-shaped bathrooms decorated with embedded shells, elkhorn and alligator-print leather bar stools at the kitchen island, a steel ventilation hood over the range meant to be a whimsical take on the Tin Man’s hat from The Wizard of Oz and a lounge area with an Indonesian vibe.
The property includes a guest house in addition to the six-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bath main quarters. The white walls and domed ceilings seem part-Greek island, part-Moroccan in their motif and design. Covered loggias help blend the indoors and outdoors and lead to a pool house. The listing also includes 150 feet of water frontage with a massive dock sized for a yacht, where there’s a captain’s house equipped with a bathroom and kitchenette.
Turchin Construction built more than 200 high-rises in Miami over the years, notably the Key Colony and the Seacoast Towers. And in the 1980s, John Turchin developed some of the chicest nightclubs of the era such as Club Nu and the Institute, helping to revive South Beach as an affluent party destination and pave the way for the current scene.
The home is located at 24 S. Hibiscus Drive and is listed with Mirce Curkoski and Albert Justo of One Sotheby’s International Realty’s waterfront team.
The rooftop’s observation tower and sun sail
Photo: The Waterfront Team with One Sotheby’s
A staircase leads directly into the water.
Photo: The Waterfront Team with One Sotheby’s
One of the loggias
Photo: The Waterfront Team with One Sotheby’s
Lounging spaces abound
Photo: The Waterfront Team with One Sotheby’s
One of six bedrooms in the main house
Photo: The Waterfront Team with One Sotheby’s