A waterfront residence on La Gorce Island in Miami Beach that was once home to Cher and temporary digs for Janet Jackson and Julio Iglesias is back on the market -- for much more than a song. Asking price: $14.9 million.
Cher bought the 64 La Gorce Cir. property in 1993 for $1.5 million, and rebuilt. In 1996, she sold to Barry Schwartz, former chairman and CEO of Calvin Klein, for $4.35 million. Ten years later, Schwartz and wife Sheryl sold it for $9.7 million to real estate developer Todd Glaser and investment partner Armin Mattli, president of Clinique La Prairie, the Swiss spa/hotel/medical center.
''We pretty much took it down to the shell,'' Glaser says. ''We redid the entire mechanicals of the house -- electric, plumbing, air conditioning.'' They put in new appliances, redid the lap pool, courtyard and landscaping, and repainted.
They rented it, furnished, to Jackson last year -- for $85,000 a month. Next tenant was Iglesias, who needed a place while rebuilding his Indian Creek Island home. Douglas Cramer, executive producer of the old TV series Dynasty, followed Iglesias.
The house, once featured in Architectural Digest, has six bedrooms, cabana and gym, two-car garage and dock.
La Gorce Islanders include singer Billy Joel and Mehmet Bayraktar, founder and CEO of Flagstone Property Group, which is developing a hotel and retail complex on Watson Island.
Nelson Gonzalez of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell has the listing. He posted 13 photos and a virtual tour at nelsongonzalez.com.
• Guy Mitchell, embattled majority owner of the Royal Palm Resort in South Beach, just sold his bayfront six-bedroom home at 14 Tahiti Beach Island Rd. in Coral Gables for $14.245 million. Buyers are Bruce and Tracey Berkowitz. He's CEO of Fairholme Capital Management.
Mitchell is in court in New York, accused of defaulting on a $25 million loan to the hotel. He initially listed the house at $16.9 million, but recently reduced the price to $14.9 million. Avatar's Toni Schrager represented buyer and seller.
SPLIT
Robert Epling, 65, president and CEO of Community Bank of Florida, and wife Linda, 60, are in divorce court. He filed. They married in Homestead in February '97, and have no children together.
She accuses him of philandering. ''The husband has expended a significant amount of marital funds . . . in the purchase of gifts as well as in taking multiple vacations without the wife, without the wife's consent and with another woman,'' she alleges in a counterpetition. He denies it, according to court papers.
His lawyer: Andrew Leinoff. Her lawyer: Cynthia Greene.
