If you’re a fan of the 1983 film “Scarface” — or simply love to check out movie-worthy real esate — then you’ll surely be interested to find out that a super-chic mansion featured in the movie has now hit the market. Located in Florida, the impressive abode is selling for a whopping $237 million.
‘Scarface,’ ‘Miami Vice’ & Nixon’s Winter White House
“The bright white, postmodern Miami-area house made famous in Brian De Palma’s Scarface is on the market,” according to Deadline. “The asking price? A cool $237 million.”
What makes that number even more jaw-dropping is the fact that, as the Miami Herald tells readers, “[i]f the house at 485 W. Matheson Dr. sells for anything close to the asking price, it would be the most expensive home sale in Miami-Dade County. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg recently broke the county’s previous record when he purchased a $170 million mansion earlier this year in the so-called ‘Billionaire Bunker’ of Indian Creek Village.”
“The 2.38-acre property is situated on the water in Key Biscayne,” per Deadline. “It boasts 868 feet of water frontage, a boat dock, a 20,000 sqaure-foot overwater helipad and piano-shaped pool. The 13,000 square-foot home itself includes floor-to-ceiling windows with a view of Biscayne Bay and the Miami skyline, five bedrooms and a steel-and-glass elevator.”
“The elevator is the centerpiece of one one the movie’s most memorable scenes — of which there are many,” Deadline notes. “In it, Tony (Al Pacino) visits the home of his new boss, the drug/car dealer Frank (Robert Loggia). As they banter, Frank’s ‘girl’ Elvira (Michelle Pfeiffer) descends in the building’s see-through elevator. It’s an entrance akin to Scarlett O’Hara descending the staircase at Terra. Tony is transfixed.”
As intriguing as that might be, Deadline also points out that “[t]he property has a provenance that goes far beyond Scarface. In the early ’70s, it was part of a compound known as The Winter White House where Richard Nixon often stayed — albeit in a much more modest bungalow. The helipad was built around that time. The bungalow was later demolished.”
Beyond that, Deadline explains that “[t]he current structure was built in about 1981 by a man named Roberto Striedinger,” who, according to one account reported by The Wall Street Journal, says was a pilot “convicted of smuggling cocaine for the Medellín drug cartel.” Deadline adds that it’s “[f]itting, then, that the structure also features in the credits of Miami Vice.”
Key Biscayne Is a ‘World-Class Beach Destination’
If you’d love to call the “Scarface” mansion home, then you’ll need to be ready, willing and able to live in Florida’s Key Biscayne.
“Just minutes from downtown Miami across the Rickenbacker Causeway, Key Biscayne is a world-class beach destination,” according to Visit Florida. “This five-mile-long barrier island … is home to picturesque beaches, lush parks, and elegant seaside restaurants.”
On top of that, Visit Florida explains that “[o]utdoor adventures abound on Key Biscayne, where boating and watersports take center stage. Hobie Beach, also known as Windsurfer Beach, is the top windsurfing spot in the Miami area as well as a popular dog-friendly beach.”
Visit Florida also notes that you can “[s]ee one of the area’s most scenic beaches at Virginia Key Beach Park on Virginia Key, just north of Key Biscayne and less than a mile from downtown Miami, and find breathtaking views and spectacular sunsets at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, where visitors can hike, bike, fish, boat camp, rent beach chairs and umbrellas, and tour the historic lighthouse.”
