South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Coral Gables estate features private beach
By Robyn A. Friedman
A 21,235-square-foot island estate in Coral Gables listed for $36.5 million has all the accouterments one would expect in a luxury home — 10 bedrooms, 11 baths, a home theater, elevator, wine cellar, fitness center and even two kitchens. It also comes with a feature many luxury homes lack — a private beach.
The mansion, at 4 Tahiti Beach Island Road, sits on a 1.4-acre waterfront lot with 530 linear feet of frontage on Biscayne Bay. It’s located in the exclusive enclave of Tahiti Beach, a neighborhood in Cocoplum, a gated community close to downtown Coral Gables, as well as shopping, restaurants and private schools.
“Tahiti Beach is an ultra-exclusive, guard-gated community,” said Chad Carroll, a real estate agent at Compass Florida in Aventura, who holds the listing. “You have to drive through Cocoplum, which is one gate to go through, and then there’s another private gate to get to Tahiti Beach. There are very few homes in the area, and only two homes have a private beach.”
The new owner will be in the company of some famous neighbors. Baseball All-Star Manuel A. “Manny” Machado, purchased an 8,305-square-foot waterfront mansion in Tahiti Beach in September 2019 for $11.3 million.
Designed by Miami architect Ramon Pacheco, the two-story home — “Tuscan with a contemporary twist,” as Carroll describes it — was built in 2009 and fully renovated in 2016.
Additional features include coffered ceilings, solid white European oak wood floors, custom fireplaces and expansive outdoor terraces that frame a heated pool. There are also two master bedrooms with a secret staircase that connects them.
“The purpose is to go between the upstairs master and the downstairs master without having to go all the way around the house — remember that this is a 20,000-square-foot house,” Carroll said. “The staircase made it very simple to go from upstairs to downstairs.”
The current owners purchased the property in July 2014 for $18 million and are selling it because they’re building a new house in the area, Carroll said.