Property Porn Of The Week: A Miami Penthouse Fit For Art Aficionados

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Click for full photo gallery: In Pictures: A $14.5 Million Miami Penthouse Fit For An Art Aficionado

It’s hard to decide where to look first when stepping off the elevator into the Grovenor House’s 32nd floor penthouse apartment.  The walls, the ceiling — even the elevator bank — are completely covered in knot-free, white-washed oak imported from Europe. A staircase chiseled from the same wood leads invitingly upstairs to a private terrace boasting south Florida views and lush rooftop gardens.  And then there’s the artwork.

The 11,810-square foot apartment is specifically designed to showcase pricey works created by such celebrated contemporary artists as Vik Muniz, John Baldessari, and Olafur Eliasson. Soft orange-hued back lighting built into the walls showcases sculptures and hallways laden with canvases. When homeowner Ella Fontanals-Cisneros finds a buyer,  the collection will depart with her.  But the posh Miami, Florida penthouse is the perfect abode for a new art aficionado to move in and unpack a new collection.

The Grovenor House penthouse is on Miami’s sale block for $14.5 million.  It is listed with ONE Sotheby’s Realty, a South Florida luxury real estate firm under the Sotheby’s International Realty umbrella.

Fontanals-Cisneros, the ex-wife of Oswaldo Cisneros of the billionaire Cisneros family, is Miami’s maven of art collections.  When she scooped up the top floor of the ritzy Grovenor House residential high rise, which sits in Miami’s  celebrity-centric Coconut Grove neighborhood, the apartment itself had yet to be built.  She collaborated with Italian architect Michele Bonan to design the structural layout of the unit.  Then Fontanals-Cisneros went to Europe, where her decorator and team of carpenters constructed the interiors of the home, to then disassemble them and hand-deliver them to Miami to be rebuilt.

“The idea was to keep inside the box of glass since the apartment has terraces all around,” explains Fontanals-Cisneros. “I wanted the apartment all in wood to keep the warmth of a home and still have the modern windows around the house and the view from every place around the apartment.”

The job took two years to complete.  The end result is a five bedroom apartment larger than most people’s stand-alone single-family houses. It boasts five full baths and two half-baths, a screening room, a 12-person dining room that stares out on the Atlantic Ocean from floor-to-ceiling windows, and a white-lacquered wood decadent kitchen with commercial-grade appliances.  The master bedroom suite leads to a master bath carved of white onyx with back-lit glass sinks, as well as a vast walk-in closet finished in oak paneling and leather doorhandles.  Nearly every room enjoys expansive views of downtown Miami and the ocean.

The spiral staircase leads to 2,700 square feet of private rooftop terraces designed by landscape architect Raymond Jungles.  The space sports manicured gardens, stone walls flooded with waterfalls and a full outdoor kitchen for entertaining. One of the best features? An infinity-edge swimming pool that gazes out over the Magic City. The rooftop has garnered multiple awards and been the subject of a Architectural Digest Italy article.

“It’s very hard to find this workmanship and quality,” says Mayi de la Vega, chief executive of ONE Sotheby’s Realty and listing agent for the property. “I’ve seen other comparable units for sale in other buildings and they don’t even come close.”  The posh pad has been on the market roughly six months; it was listed previously and taken off because Fontanals-Cisneros was hesitant to sell.  The Miami art scene queen is ready to let the place go now thanks to an abundance of grandchildren that require ground-floor space to more safely run around.

De la Vega suspects the $14.5 million property will go to an international buyer “who appreciates the finer things in life.” To help attract potential buyers to the listing,  the realtor recently hosted a cocktail party in conjunction with famed New York auction house, Sotheby’s.  They invited the auctioneer’s top clients to the 32nd floor manse for a look around.  According to de la Vega, a multi-million Miami property like this one can take upwards of 18 months to market and sell.

Despite the fact that Miami property prices have depreciated roughly 50% since 2007 and foreclosures remain high, de la Vega believes that the Grovenor House penthouse will have no problem finding a buyer.  She says a look at the high-end housing market from November 2008 through the first five months of this year indicates that prices are climbing back and inventory is shrinking.  Multiple units priced at $5 million or higher have sold in the past few months, including a recent $11 million estate on the beach.