Fisher Island Real Estate, Bal Harbour Real Estate, Miami Beach Real Estate, Miami-Dade Real Estate, Omar H. Scandura,Biscayne Corridor Real Estate, Downtonw, Uptown, Midtown, Upper East Side Miami Real Estate

Fisher Island ,January/February 2000
Fisher Island, a perfect preservation: the chopped-off chunk of Miami Beach on the MacArthur Causeway between South Beach and Virginia Key.Fourteen years ago, I rode around Fisher Island's 216 unfinished acres on a golf cart. Bill Rebozo, the developer nephew of financier Charles "BeBe" Rebozo (Richard Nixon's favorite pal), wanted me to see what was to be his dream island town smack in the middle of downtown Miami.
His love affair with the sprawling $56-million, 60-year-old Spanish Mediterranean winter domicile of William Kissam Vanderbilt II (great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt), which had been located on Fisher Island since the 1920s, was the prototype for his version of an Italian hill town or a Spanish hideaway port, chock-a-block with European influences.

His mission, with the help of architects Sandy & Babcock, was to build a town in the exact architectural style of Vanderbilt's low-rise villa with cream-colored walls and red Spanish Mission barrel tile roofs. "I want a private old world harbor island," Rebozo mused at the time. "We will wake in the sun to croissants and coffee and sip wine at sunset...there will be nothing surrounding us but sea and sky."

                                   Relax on the island's palm-lined shores

Rebozo never realized his dream but Fisher Island was purchased by Mutual Benefit Life Insurance in 1986 who developed the island, then sold it 12 years later to its current owner Chicago financier John J. Melk, an early investor in Blockbuster Video with Wayne Huizenga, and his partners, Daniel McLean, a Chicago developer, and Melk's son Daniel. This group has continued to add to the luxury and livability of an island town so foreign and far out yet near the city.
The philosophy behind the planning and design for Fisher Island was to create a "world apart" by invoking the ambience of a Mediterranean hill town on this flat spit of land surrounded by the dazzling waters of the Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

The overall estate enclave, consisting of several weathered buildings (now the stunning Fisher Island Club), provided architect Jim Babcock the key to what the island should become. The estate's elegant Mediterranean style matched the island's balmy climate and waterfront location, allowing the use of the region's vast natural vegetation. "Rebozo had a vision but couldn't make it tick," Babcock says now. "But the general manager wanted Fisher Island made perfect. So we remastered the plan, and built the entire island to look as it did in the 1920s. It was quite a job."

A spectacular job, indeed. After spending four glorious days in the virginal largo of nature-by-the-sea, an international Martha's Vineyard with warmer waters, I had to be dredged out by a crane. (My second and third visits were the same.)
Fisher Island was created in 1905 by a dredging project called Government Cut which separated the southeast side of Miami Beach from the rest of the city. Several years later the island was purchased by Carl Fisher, a local developer who, like Rebozo, fell in love with the tropical paradise and wanted to make it a superduper playground. (Fisher so much wanted to live and die there he actually built a mausoleum to prove it.)

Historic articles believed new-moneyed millionaire Fisher and his old-moneyed millionaire pal William K. Vanderbilt were drinking one night when Vanderbilt offered to trade his 250-foot yacht EAGLE for Fisher Island. For some wacky reason, Fisher agreed, and Vanderbilt began building his Gatsbyesque estate on the island.
When Vanderbilt died of a heart attack in 1944, the estate was acquired for $500,000 by Edward Moore, whose family owned U.S. Steel. Later, it was purchased by Gar Wood, the eccentric speedboat king, who eventually sold it to a consortium including former President Richard Nixon and his pal BeBe Rebozo.

According to Babcock, all executives involved with Fisher Island wanted to maintain the intricate detail that Vanderbilt had designed and young Rebozo had perpetuated. This is why the island is a feast for the eyes and a sedative for the anxious personality.

The restoration of the original Vanderbilt complex is mind boggling. It includes the main mansion, the exquisite baths, the several guest houses, an art studio for Rosemary (Vanderbilt's talented daughter), servants quarters, pools, tennis courts, golf course, electrical generating plant and pump station.

Portraits of Napoleon (Vanderbilt's hero) were on display throughout the manse as were the table linens the Emperor had used. There were needlepoint chairs and cedar-lined closets even in the servants quarters. All have been restored. "The Fisher Island Club (the original home) is a major residence restored," explains Babcock. "The additions were a kitchen and ballroom. We repeated the details, bronzed the windows, added a fancy oak lounge near the main dining room and remodeled the courtyard, adding a porte cochere. We recreated the mahogany furniture and built a grand staircase. The wall treatment in the ballroom is hand painted canvas with flowered frescoes."

The woodwork, imported from Europe, was also left as it was. The public area is paved in coral. The fireplace at the head of the outdoor swimming pool is made of the original coral. The details around the pool are coral precast; the weathered look of coral is retained with pocks and holes. All doors have cut coral around them.

The various cottages are now staff offices or hotel rental villas, including the newly renovated STUDIO, Rosemary's cottage, which has an enchanting backyard terrace with a tiled whirlpool, mahogany furniture inside, and a kelly green tiled kitchen with fine wood cabinets. The Estate Guest Lodge is within the building which originally housed Vanderbilt's boat crew.
Portions of the elegant 22,000-square-foot Spa Internazionale - named one of Town & Country's "best in the Western World" - were the original seaplane hangar.

The open-air Beach Club and adjoining indoor/outdoor restaurant were once the pump house. The elegant, candle lit Vanderbilt Dining Room with mahogany furniture and French and Italian antiques bought and placed by Carol Corn, a Fisher Island interior designer, has endured another restoration to look even more like it did in the 1920s.

Babcock, who has had inquiries from Spain, Portugal and Italy to create Fisher Island types of residential enclaves, designed a hill town atmosphere by stepping the buildings and roof lines, creating a random silhouette that seemed to be tumbling down a hillside. The red clay roof tiles amid the creamy white plaster walls highlight the concept which actually works. The rooftops, stepped in several directions, provide views for every condo unit scattered around the pristine grounds.

"We treated Fisher Island like a small town," Babcock explains. "Each building is done like a small village within a larger town. Representatives from other countries have talked to me about building similar island towns there. But there's nowhere else like Fisher Island." The white plaster walls of the buildings were hand-trowled in a traditional arched pattern. Tile pavers throughout the community were made in Spain by Hijos de Sugranes and the hand-made clay tile roofs come from San Salvador. Florida keystone, a coral-like stone indigenous to Florida, is used to accent the early work around the pools, and for columns, railing caps and ornate door sounds.

Together, Fisher Island's condos, courtyards, fountains and fauna create a picture book luxury community that is accessible only by water - a continuous fleet of running ferry boats - or by air on the private helipad.
There is no bridge. (This is why President Clinton and the First Lady Hillary stayed here in 1995, and movie stars like Demi Moore and Meg Ryan like to escape reality by sunbathing on the Bahamian imported sand.)
Once there, amid a chorus of exotic peacocks, Latino Indian Ringnecks, Hawkhead and Yellow Nape Amazon Parrots, Mexican Military Macaws and Australian Cockatiels in environmentally-perfect aviaries, park your car for the duration of the stay and move around the island on foot, bike, or golf cart. (You get two carts if you buy a condo.)
There's even an observatory so residents can study nature and the stars. (Either interplanetary stars or movie stars - several live on neighboring Star Island - depending on your preference.)

Although the average priced condo is $2.1 million for a 3,500-square-foot unit, the range is from $650,000 to $7 million for a five-bedroom palace with a gym, whirlpool and his and her bath salons. (Many folks pay cash and pray away the hurricanes).
So far, people from 45 different countries have bought from the array of 560 residences here, making Fisher Island denizens a mighty cosmopolitan bunch. Using Fisher Island as a second, third or fourth home, well-heeled dwellers come from Brazil, Germany, Japan, Britain, France, Spain, Canada, and the U.S. Young architects, artists, industrialists, lawyers and doctors are buying up the windswept island at the rate of about four units a month.

With Miami's international business reputation, South Beach's Prozac-perfect party scene, and the lower prices of luxury homes as compared to those in Europe and South America, Fisher Island is indeed one-of-a-kind. There are few tropical island retreats isolated from the world while merely a five-minute ferry from reality. (If South Beach is considered reality.)
For golfers, a par-35, 3,400-yard championship, nine-hole, Pete Dye- designed golf course with a 5,000- square-foot clubhouse should keep you happy. And complexes of new golf villas are under construction. Dozens of fitness trails swathed in bougainvillea, Royal Palms from Cuba, Coconut Palms from Malaysia, and rare orchids from the island's own nursery, make an excellent backdrop for golf and other forms of outdoor exercise.

There is a 16-court tennis center, unusual European treatments in the blue glass tiled spa with gushing Roman springs outdoors like the luxury spa in Montecatani, Italy, and a 4,000-foot beach. In the commercial section, accessible by golf cart, are a bank, language school, furniture store, florist, hardware store, gourmet grocery, cafes, video-rental store, clothing boutiques, post office, fire station, real estate sales office, laundry and insurance agency. Nearby are two marinas with every kind of boat imaginable, nine restaurants, a dinner theater and the private Fisher Island Club for residents, club members, and non-members who stay in the hotel villas for upwards of $800 a night.

To be commercially perfect, all the island needs is a bit more culture to meet the excellence of the architecture. Maybe a dedicated book store/library, more art, and more theatrical productions.
Whether you buy a condo, a golf course villa, become a member of the club or just stay the weekend, Fisher Island is literally a world apart from everyday life.

The international mix of people is stimulating, and the serene beauty, the local historic destination, the tiled pool, and the sounds of an active bird sanctuary provide a relaxing tranquilizer accessible without a prescription.
I recommend it highly.

Fisher Island
One Fisher Island Dr., Fisher Island, FL 33109-0001 305-535-6000