Douglas Elliman’s Lourdes Alatriste brings Fox Information Digital inside an $18.9 million residence in Coconut Grove, the place historical past and luxurious intersect.
After months of touring South Florida’s most fortified islands and branded penthouses, the ultimate cease on the “billionaire bunker” circuit reveals a shift within the ultra-high-net-worth psyche.
Rich transplants are not simply shopping for safety – they’re shopping for historical past. Tucked behind the luxurious, designer landscaping of a Gothic-modern $18 million property, the “Silicon Grove” period has arrived. Right here, the bunker is not a contemporary glass field, however as an alternative options grand areas, hand-carved stone fixtures and even a large chessboard on the roof that feels extra like a European cathedral than a Miami residence.
As taxes scream within the Northeast and West Coast, titans of business are discovering that true luxurious in 2026 means a non-public dock, keystone-edged infinity pool and the liberty to stroll to an area bookstore with no safety element in tow — together with Google co-founder Larry Web page, who simply poured greater than $188 million into the neighborhood.
“Individuals of that caliber do their homework earlier than they buy something. Regardless how emotional or how impulsive it’s, they at all times are guided they usually’re taught the place to purchase or the place to not purchase, and their advisors advised them that Coconut Grove was the place,” Douglas Elliman’s Lourdes Alatriste, who has a protracted roster of A-list purchasers, advised Fox Information Digital.
INSIDE THE 50-HOME MIAMI SANCTUARY WHERE SMART MONEY IS BUYING DECADES OF SECURITY FOR THEIR KIDS
“And that simply makes it the whole lot that I’ve at all times mentioned: Coconut Grove is a hidden gem. It has the whole lot… from water, to walks, to parks, to shops, to household.”
Properties within the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida, on Monday, March 23, 2026. (Getty Pictures)
Coconut Grove is Miami-Dade County’s oldest neighborhood, having been based by settlers within the 1870s and annexed by Miami in 1925. Its ascent started within the Sixties when it was dubbed as “The Grove,” and attracted largely Bohemian artists, musicians and writers. Throughout the Nineteen Eighties, cash began flowing because of the top of America’s cocaine increase, and whereas Coconut Grove maintained a few of its hippie vibe, new residential developments took over the panorama.
Quick-forward to as we speak, and “impulsively, it began choosing up once more as a result of [people] observed, when you’ve a spot, when there is not any extra land, and you’ve got a location that fills all of your wishes as to colleges, as to parks, as to retailers, as to life-style, privateness, you go for it. You begin constructing it up,” Alatriste defined. “You are taking the areas which are nice and make them even higher.”
The house the luxurious agent confirmed to Fox Information Digital paralleled the group’s mixture of historical past and new age extravagance. Upon coming into, an amazing corridor hits you with 30-foot vaulted ceilings and shiny marble flooring that hum with a cool, heavy permanence. Large, smooth-plastered white fireplaces act as anchors, whereas vintage stained-glass home windows — positioned excessive like clerestories — solid colourful, geometric shadows throughout fashionable white bouclé armchairs and French solid bronze chandeliers.
The first room balcony overlooks Biscayne Bay. | FOXBusiness
Based on Alatriste, the house’s asking worth of $18.9 million is definitely “a bit of bit beneath” expectations.
“Once I give costs, there’s at all times three costs for me: A wow issue… Then there [are] the common costs comparable with the comps within the space, and there is the value I’ve to promote tomorrow. So, with that mentioned, I believe Coconut Grove has maintained its wow issue,” she mentioned.
“You’ve a chance now that I do not know in case you’ll have it afterward. As [prices rise] and as extra folks are available, as a result of we nonetheless have lots of people, and bear in mind, Florida does not simply have a sure [migration demographic], like New Yorkers or California, they’ve the whole lot. They’ve Mexico. They’ve Brazil… Chicago… It is a melting pot of various states and international locations that come right here.”
Douglas Elliman Unique Group co-founder Devin Kay takes Fox Information Digital inside a multi-million greenback Allison Island residence in the identical tight-knit neighborhood the place Google’s Sergey Brin moved to.
Whereas Indian Creek Village, 4 Seasons Surf Membership and Allison Island depend on personal safety forces, the Grove depends on a tradition of “respectful distance.” The properties are designed to permit high-profile homeowners to have interaction with the world on their phrases, that includes outside areas that look out with out being seen.
Among the most notable residents have included Madonna, LeBron James, Sylvester Stallone, Jimmy Buffett, Derek Jeter, Christian Slater — and for historical past’s sake, phone inventor Alexander Graham Bell.
“You need to go to dinner, come again and never [have] worry or something. You need to go on a visit and need to know that your space is being coated, that you do not have to fret. There’s at all times going to be one thing that we won’t management, however mainly, those who dwell round you’ll at all times handle you as nicely,” Alatriste mentioned of the sense of group in Coconut Grove. “They’re not star-crazy… they’re very respectful of others.”
The Corcoran Group’s Mick Duchon offers Fox Information Digital a tour of a $21.95 million unit on the 4 Seasons residences in Surfside, the place ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz simply purchased the penthouse.
For tech titans like Web page and different forces of business, the draw to Florida has allegedly shifted to a way of life change versus being strictly about enterprise.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
“I believe they’re going to at all times discuss taxes. Cash screams,” Alatriste mentioned. “However in fact at that caliber, your life-style is extra vital than the cash.”
“Wellness, authenticity and group… These are the three phrases to finest describe Coconut Grove.”
