Investor John Devaney is looking to cash in on his waterfront compound in Key Biscayne for $237 million, marking the most expensive home for sale in South Florida, and the second priciest in the state.
Devaney, founder and CEO of Miami-based United Capital Markets, listed his 2.4-acre property at 485 West Matheson Drive with Jill Eber and Judy Zeder of the Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker.
Devaney made his fortune buying risky mortgage loans, and he was on Time Magazine’s list of “25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis” in 2009.
He found the mansion while he was in the middle of a helicopter-flying lesson in 2003, the Wall Street Journal reported. After touching back down on land, he knocked on the front door and made an offer. He paid $15 million for the home, and another $15 million for adjacent land. Property records show developer Edgardo Defortuna sold the sliver of land next door in 2004. Defortuna owns the adjacent waterfront home.
Devaney’s house, which includes a helipad, was once part of the property used by President Richard Nixon as his Winter White House. It was also featured in the movie “Scarface.” Devaney told the outlet that fans of the 1983 film “all want to ride in the stainless steel and glass elevator and take photos.”
The property has 862 feet of water frontage and includes the 13,000-square-foot mansion with five bedrooms, seven bathrooms and two half-bathrooms.
If he sells at or near the asking price, the deal would blow past the current record for home sales in Miami-Dade County, set earlier this year when Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, paid $170 million for an under-construction mansion in Indian Creek.
Other über-wealthy buyers, like Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have purchased luxury homes in recent months.
— Katherine Kallergis
