Fisher Island is getting even richer — 3 private mansions are now for sale
If the luxury condos in the country’s richest ZIP Code aren’t high-end or private enough for you, three new mansions are for sale.
The single-family homes at The Mansions on Fisher Island are listed for about $34 million each by French luxury development firm Madar Group USA. In a conclave already fixated with security and privacy, the mansions will offer even more.
Exclusive Fisher Island — once home to Oprah Winfrey and Mel Brooks — has about 800 residences, most of them condos. The island sits in Biscayne Bay off Miami Beach and is reachable only by ferry and helicopter.
In 2023, Madar Group USA began buying 2 1/2 acres of Fisher Island’s 216 total acres to build The Mansions, a community of a dozen single-family homes. The last privately owned single-family estates were built on the island in the 1990s, and now there are about 20 on the island.
This week, Madar announced the sale of three more single-family homes at The Mansions for a combined cost of $105.5 million. Now, there are only the three unsold family homes left.
The homes that are under contract will be completed late this year or early next year, and the remaining mansions are expected to be finished in 2027 or 2028.
The residences appearing on The Mansions’ community plan site include 8 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms in a 10,600-square-feet floor plan, and 6 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms in 15,800- and 8,500-square-foot homes.
The mansions stand out from the condo way of life on Fisher Island. And even more condos may be built on land that now houses a PortMiami fuel depot.
But with limited space for more luxury housing, The Mansions’ single-family homes could be one of the last chances to own some land on the island. The homes’ modern design also is different than the Mediterranean-style condo buildings.
“We used our European culture and influence [in] creating a product that doesn’t really exist here,” said David-Emmanuel Cohen, the developer, founder and CEO of The Mansions on Fisher Island.
Cohen’s family has been developing high-end real estate in Europe for three generations, and his goal is to expand the family business in the U.S. with this debut.
The Mansions is a “community within a community” for residents, Cohen said, offering a minimum of 13,000 square feet per lot on top of the exclusivity that a life on Fisher Island already has. Just like the condo residents, mansion owners will have use of Fisher Island amenities: a beach, golf course, pickleball courts, even a private school. But the mansions will have their own private amenities as well.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, Cohen found that buyers were more attracted to the idea of private amenities apart from a shared condo space, like a personal pool, gym or elevator.
“When you live in a condo, obviously by definition you need to share that with the rest of the residents,” said Cohen. “There has been a switch and a change in customers’ expectations to be able to be free in their own home .... without any kind of restrictions.”
While there’s not much space on Fisher Island to squeeze in more single-family homes like Madar Group’s, Cohen expects the luxury market to expand, and the company is looking for more locations to build homes.
