This Sunny Destination Emerged as a Celebrity Real Estate Hot Spot in 2021

Celebrity Real EstateThis Sunny Destination Emerged as a Celebrity Real Estate Hot Spot in 2021 Karlie Kloss, Serena Williams, Cindy Crawford, and more A-listers bought property here this yearDecember 30, 2021Image may contain Villa House Building Housing Hotel Resort and OutdoorsActor Kevin James, of The King of Queens and Kevin Can Wait fame, purchased this home in Delray Beach for $14 million earlier this year. Courtesy of Nicholas Malinosky of Douglas Elliman 

It’s no secret that the real estate industry has grown more and more frenetic and hard to predict over the past couple of years. While it used to be safe to say that New York and L.A. were the most expensive areas in the country for prospective homeowners, that’s no longer the case. This boom is hitting particularly hard in a specific region of the U.S.: South Florida, an area that includes Miami, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and many of the other hottest spots in the Sunshine State. “Whether it’s tax reasons, or the weather, it’s really the lifestyle that people enjoy here,” says Florida real estate agent and vice president of ONE Sotheby’s International Realty Michael Martinez. “It could be February, and it’s 70 degrees, it allows people to do so much more. We have museums and beautiful parks, or if you’re into just hanging out by the beach or jogging every morning, that’s really pleasant.” The area has also become a bona fide hot spot for celebrity real estate.

There’s no doubt that the Florida lifestyle was a wonderful fit at the height of the pandemic: If you have to spend months cooped up somewhere, it might as well be a place like the $35 million Palm Beach spot Sylvester Stalone picked up in December of 2020, with its private beach, poolside cabana, gym, and temperature-controlled wine room, or the Frank Lloyd Wright–inspired pad Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas bought for $11 million this past September. Yet, as perfect as it is for homebodies, as things open up again, world travelers view it as a great home base because, as Martinez put it, it’s “the gateway to the Americas.”

Jonas and Turners Miami home.

Jonas and Turner’s Miami home.

Photo: Kris Tamburello for Douglas Elliman

“A lot of celebrities like to jump on a yacht and go 50 miles down to the first island of the Bahamas and get away and be on secluded beaches. Miami’s kind of strategic, it’s a very good location within the country, especially if you go to Europe and Latin America often.” From their new plot of land on the star-studded Indian Creek Island, which they reportedly purchased for $32.2 million, it would be easy for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner to quickly take to the seas. It would seem that Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady are ready to experience the convenience of such a location too: They bought land on Indian Creek Island for $17 million soon after Trump and Kushner.

Indian Creek Island is nicknamed “Billionaire Bunker,” and it’s safe to say it earned that title, though the reasoning behind it may be deceptively simple. Whether it’s “Miami Beach, Aventura, Coral Gables, Pine Crest, Key Biscayne, all these communities are incorporated, so they have their own police and fire departments.” Martinez explains. “They are high-end areas where celebrities feel comfortable living.” For just 42 residents, Indian Creek reportedly staffs 13 people on its police force, some of which circle the area on patrol boats.

Kushner and Trump didn’t influence only Bündchen and Brady to embrace secluded Florida living: Shortly after their move, Jared’s brother Joshua Kushner and his wife Karlie Kloss headed down south. Only a 10-minute drive from his brother’s property, the newly renovated 14,000-square-foot mansion Kushner and Kloss opted for set them back $23.5 million.

Kloss and Bündchen are among a slew of notable fashion figures drawn to year-round warm weather. Tommy Hilfiger and Dee Ocleppo purchased two properties in quick succession. The first is a $9 million furnished Palm Beach Bermuda-style home, and their second, purchased a few months later, is a $21 million Mediterranean-style home also located in Palm Beach. Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford indulged too, though it was a midcentury-modern on Miami Beach that caught their eyes.

Image may contain Furniture Couch Table Living Room Room Indoors Rug Housing Building Coffee Table and Flooring

Crawford and Gerber’s Florida living room.

Courtesy of ONE Sotheby’s International Realty

It’s undeniable that the consistent warmth is ideal for the athletically inclined. Soccer star Lionel Messi took notice earlier this year and spent $7.3 million on the entire floor of a condo in Sunny Isles, not far from North Miami Beach. Serena Williams paid baseball player Yadier Molina $8 million for his home in the fall of 2020, though she quickly demolished the structure and is currently in the process of building a space of her own on the four acres of land. Williams’s spot is much further up than most of the aforementioned properties, though it’s still in South Florida.

Kevin James, of The King of Queens and Hitch fame, found his perfect spot a bit farther too, proving that the celebrity real estate boom in the area is only growing. The actor bought an expansive beachfront home in Delray Beach for $14 million at the beginning of 2021.

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Originally posted on: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/celebrity-real-estate-hot-spot-2021