Miami’s Billionaire Bunker, home to Bezos and Ivanka, has a very unpleasant problem

The chatter on the manicured streets in Indian Creek Village these days isn’t about the upcoming nuptials of its most famous residents.

Sure, folks are talking about Jeff Bezos finally getting hitched to Lauren Sanchez, reportedly in Venice, Italy. But there’s an ickier topic du jour.

Despite the private, man-made barrier island being home to some of the nation’s wealthiest, including celebrities Tom Brady as well as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, it has a seriously nasty problem on its hands — ICV doesn’t have the underground infrastructure to deal with its own sewage.

Officials wants to get rid of their septic tanks, long a source of pollution, and export the island’s waste through the sewer pipes of nearby Surfside, home to Brady’s ex Gisele Bundchen.

“It’s the health of the bay,” Indian Creek Village Manager Guillermo Olmedillo told Local 10 back in February. “Also, it’s state and county policy to make the conversion from septic to sewer.”

The idea is to funnel the sludgy gunk through the sleepy beach town and ultimately into a wider regional sewage system. Surfside’s waste gets sent via Bay Harbor Islands to the city of Miami Beach, which then moves it along to a treatment plant in Virginia Key, operated by the county.

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett was willing to comply — for a price. He asked for $10 million to go toward improvements for his own residents’ sewer system, but Indian Creek officials reportedly balked.

“We were not going to be extorted by him,” Stephen J. Helfman, the village lawyer, told the New York Times of Burkett in a recent article. “We are a local government just like they are. They are a wealthy community, too.”

Helfman, along with Indian Creek’s village council that includes Kushner, decided to send a lobbyist up to Tallahassee to argue the matter, according to the Times.

The trip to the Capitol worked: A comprehensive transportation bill recently approved by the state legislature now includes a measure prohibiting municipalities from impeding (or charging for) the installation of sewer lines.

Bernard Klepach, the mayor of Indian Creek, applauded the move.

“The bottom line is that it’s the right thing to do,” the pol told the Times. “Forget about us and our community, if we’re entitled or not. It is for Biscayne Bay, and it’s for the betterment of our state.”

It’s now up to Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign the bill that will open the floodgates, so to speak.

The Miami Herald reached out to Klepach for comment, but did not immediately hear back. Burkett, through his representative, said he had “nothing more to add beyond what is set forth in the NYT article.”

This story was originally published June 17, 2025 at 5:31 PM.

Madeleine Marr

Miami Herald

Celebrity/real time news reporter Madeleine Marr has been with The Miami Herald since 2003. She has covered such features as travel, fashion and food. In 2007, she helped launch the newspaper’s daily People Page, attending red carpet events, awards ceremonies and press junkets; interviewing some of the biggest names in show business; and hosting her own online show. She is originally from New York City.