The Bay Road Castle is more of an ‘eyesore.’ For now. Photo by Joe Del Vecchio

Deals of the Rich and Famous

By Eleanor McCulloch

This summer Miami Beach said goodbye to two superstar property owners and one super-ugly piece of property.

The last few weeks were all about change for NBA star Shaquille O’Neal: not only was he traded to Cleveland from Phoenix but the former Miami Heat player finally managed to sell his Star Island mansion to supermodel Naomi Campbell’s billionaire boyfriend Vladislav Doronin.

Yep, Shaq bought the place way back in 2004 for $18.2 million, tried to sell it in 2005 for $32 million before the asking price dropped as steadily as his career point average: $29 million, then $22 million. He finally accepted $16 million from Doronin in June — $2.2 million less than he paid for the place. Oh well, $16 million should buy him quite a nice pad in Ohio.

Shaq should have listened to rock star Lenny Kravitz when he asked, “Are You Gonna Go My Way?”

After having it on the market for just four months, Kravitz sold his waterfront home on Biscayne Point Island for just under $2.5 million — he bought the three-bedroom, 5,700-square-foot home in 1997 for $725,000.

But, that wasn’t the first time Kravitz made bank with Miami Beach property. In 2001 he paid almost $9 million for his mega-estate on Sunset Island, and managed to unload it for $14.5 million in March 2006 to Stephen Muss, the former owner of The Fontainebleau Hotel - at a handsome profit of more than $5 million.

Nice job, sir.

This month also had us bidding a fond farewell to the North Bay Road Castle, when it burned to the ground on July 17. However, some might be celebrating the destruction of what many consider the ugliest building to sore the eyes of Miami Beach residents and tourists since Henry Flagler said, ‘Let’s build a causeway.’ Probably.

Next door to the home of Calvin Klein, the designer of jeans so tight that they could almost be used as contraception, the controversial 10 bedroom mansion, which was vacant, had been on the market since last November. Built in 1925 the architecturally unique home was protected from being torn down by city ordinance, making the potentially lucrative ground beneath its feet worthless.

Anyway, perhaps castle aficionados will get lucky and some millionaire superstar will buy the land to have the place rebuilt just as it was before.

It could happen.

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