Celebrity Pads ~ Gianni Versace's former Miami mansion

 
The new owners of the South Beach mansion where Gianni Versace lived and died said Tuesday that they hope to use the Italian fashion designer's name and legacy in rebranding the property as a hotel.
VM South Beach LLC bid $41.5 million for the oceanfront property on Miami Beach's touristy Ocean Drive. The company's principals include the Nakash family of New York, which controls Jordache Enterprises.

Joe Nakash, chairman of Jordache Enterprises, said he expects to retain all the vestiges of Versace's time in South Beach in the 1990s - the snake-haired Medusa heads, a swimming pool inlaid with 24-karat gold tiles, gold-plated bathroom fixtures, custom-made mosaic floorings and frescos and the throngs of tourists who still routinely stop to have their picture taken on the front steps where the designer was slain.

Though the Versace family hasn't owned the oceanfront mansion since 2000, auctioneers hoped the designer's legacy would attract potential buyers.




The mansion has been officially named Casa Casuarina for more than a decade, operating first as a private club and then as a boutique hotel until earlier this year. But locals still refer to it as 'the Versace mansion.'

It was initially listed for sale at $125 million last year. The asking price dropped to $75 million by June, and Nakash said he had been prepared to offer that much for the property.
'Have you ever been inside? You will understand how beautiful it is. The art, the pool, everything,' Nakash said.


Versace and an entourage of celebrity friends that included Madonna, Cher and Elton John helped change South Beach from a retirement community known as 'God's waiting room' to the party-centric, international tourist destination it is today.
The designer bought a neglected three-story, Mediterranean-style home, originally built in 1930 by Standard Oil heir Alden Freeman, and a dilapidated hotel next door in 1992 and spent $33 million on renovations. The 23,000-square-foot mansion has 10 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and an open-air courtyard.

 

Versace was fatally shot in 1997 by serial killer Andrew Cunanan, who later shot himself as a police search closed in on him.