Al Capone’s historic Miami home has been saved from demolition after it traded hands for $15.5 million. The Miami home where Al Capone took his final breath in 1947 after suffering a heart attack is being saved from demolition after a spirited campaign by locals was launched to preserve the estate.
The property traded hands for a whopping $15.5 million, records show, on Sept. 24. The sale comes only weeks after it was purchased by developers Todd Michael Glaser and his business partner Nelson Gonzalez in August for $10.75 million.
At the time, Glaser told the Wall Street Journal of his plans to tear down the 7,500-square-foot Palm Island residence in favor of a modern build.
Despite Capone’s nefarious reputation and criminal history, an online petition with over 25,000 signatures was started to stop the development. The colonial-style, seven-bedroom property features three houses: the gatehouse, the main villa and the pool cabana. American gangster Al Capone, who inspired the film “Scarface,” relaxes in his vacation home in Miami, Florida in 1930. Capone smokes a cigar and wears a striped dressing gown and slippers. Photo shows men from the Sheriff’s Department of Dade County entering Al Capone’s home at Miami Beach, Florida, for a raid. “Miami Beach risks losing an important part of not just our local history, but of US history if this demolition is allowed to proceed,” organizers said in the petition. “The loss of this landmark structure and its replacement with a new oversized home will have a long-term negative impact on the community.”
The petition led the developers to withdraw their application to the local Design Review Board, which would have decided if the home could be torn down, in mid-September.
In an interview with the Miami Herald , they likened the recent sale of the property to winning the lottery. Getty Images The bathroom is seen in the pool cabana during a tour of the former home of Al Capone on March 18, 2015 in Miami Beach, Florida. An aerial view of the Al Capone’s home, isolated before new construction began in the neighborhood. Tribune News Service via Getty I A downstairs bathroom in Al Capone’s mansion still has the faux gold faucets, as seen September 7, 2012. Capone’s grandniece Deidre Marie Capone, 72, toured the mobster’s former mansion on Palm Island. The Brooklyn-born gangster purchased the seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom home in 1928 for $40,000. It was built in 1922.
Fully renovated and remodeled in 2015, the home has been on and off the market since 2018.
The Spanish Colonial-style waterfront mansion features views of Biscayne Bay, and boasts a private beach, a gatehouse and a 30-by-60-foot pool with a cabana, according to the listing.