Al Capone’s 100-year-old house in Miami Beach set to meet the wrecking ball. Read why
Gangster Al Capone’s final residence in Miami Beach, a 100-year-old waterfront house with a large pool, soon will be completely demolished, unless a last-minute plea from preservationists to save it causes the property owner to pause.
The property owner, the Claramonte family living next door, requested a permit from the city of Miami Beach to tear down the historic house at 93 Palm Ave. It could take a few months to secure the permit, but there’s nothing Beach officials can do to stop the demolition based on a Florida law that went into effect over the summer. Once the permit is granted, the property owner has nine months to demolish the single-family residence before having to submit a new application.
“It’s now a straightforward process,” said Thomas Mooney, the city’s planning director. “Before the recent state legislation, if a home was built before 1942 the [Miami Beach] design review board had to review the design for the new home.”
Indeed, the stage is set to turn a piece of Miami Beach history into rubble.
Albert and Karise Claramonte, who acquired the property and placed it in a trust for their five children, hired Gables Construction to demolish the two-story residence. The house sits on nearly an acre and has nine bedrooms, six bathrooms, two half bathrooms and a 60-foot-long swimming pool. The demolition permit application said it will cost about $25,000 to demolish the entire house.
Post-demolition plans for the property are unclear. Trust representative and Coral Gables accountant Toni Alam told the Miami Herald Thursday, “I can’t disclose anything, because it would ruin the plans we are working on.” Alam declined further comment.
Prospects to save the historic home are bleak, since the state Legislature modified its property laws in July. The new law prohibits local authorities from stopping demolitions of low-lying houses in designated flood zones, creating a dream scenario for many Miami Beach owners and developers.
Before July, owners of single-family homes built prior to 1942 needed to undergo a tedious process to gain approval to demolish a Miami Beach residence, including meeting with the city’s Design Review Board, which would approve any new construction set to replace an existing structure. The meetings also gave the public — supporters and critics alike — the chance to provide public comment.
Miami Beach has seen an increase in the number of teardown applications over the past few years. The city received 34 teardown applications in 2021, up from 13 in 2020 and 24 in 2019, according to city records and data from the Miami Design Preservation League.
Built in 1922, the former Capone residence is most known for the gangster’s years there before he died at the house in 1947. The residence also happens to be one of the first homes built on manmade Palm Island, now an enclave for wealthy residents.
“This would be one of the greatest houses of a single-family historical landmark of this city. It is hard to think about Miami Beach without Scarface, the prohibition, Al Capone,” said Daniel Ciraldo, executive director of the Miami Design Preservation League. “Capone had an impact on our city and that should be recognized and not erased.”
Ciraldo still holds out hope the property owners will work with his organization to find a buyer keen on preserving the residence rather than having a wrecking ball destroy it.
“It is unfortunate we’re at this step now. We thought we would have the opportunity through public hearings, but it got cut short with this preemption. It seems now the end is near,” he said. “To see it be bulldozed will be something generations of people will remember.”
This story was originally published November 11, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
