The ultra-luxury real estate market in Florida has just reached a new milestone. The Key Biscayne property that served as the setting for the iconic film Scarface (1983) has been put on the market for $237 million. According to the Wall Street Journal, if the transaction goes through for this amount, it would shatter the current Miami-Dade County record, surpassing the $170 million that Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, recently paid for a mansion in Indian Creek.
The property, which spans nearly one hectare, is owned by John Devaney, an investor who acquired the main house and an adjacent helipad for $15 million years ago, following an almost cinematic impulse: he saw the helipad from the air while taking a flying lesson and decided to buy it for his own aircraft. After investing another $15 million in neighboring land and renovations, Devaney is now seeking unprecedented returns.
The mansion, spanning approximately 1,200 square meters, is world-renowned for having been the home of Frank Lopez in the film directed by Brian De Palma. Iconic elements from the movie, such as the glass and stainless steel elevator where Al Pacino (Tony Montana) filmed memorable scenes, are still in operation and are the main attraction for visitors, as Devaney himself told the Wall Street Journal.
However, the reality of the house sometimes surpasses fiction. The property was originally built around 1981 by Roberto Striedinger. According to the book Cunning Edge: A 45-Year Journey Conducting Global Undercover Investigations, Striedinger was a pilot linked to the Medellín cartel, convicted of cocaine smuggling. The U.S. government confiscated the property before it passed into the hands of private owners and, finally, to the current seller.
Beyond its Hollywood fame and its connections to drug trafficking in the 1980s, the estate holds presidential historical significance. The helipad, now part of the property for sale, was originally built to serve President Richard Nixon’s so-called “Winter White House.”
Nixon spent his summers and vacations in a modest bungalow within this Key Biscayne complex during his presidency. According to the book Florida History from the Highways (2005), the enormous concrete platform overlooking Biscayne Bay was specifically erected to manage the flow of helicopters transporting officials, advisors—including Henry Kissinger—and Secret Service agents who accompanied the president. Although Nixon’s original bungalow was demolished in the early 2000s, the helipad infrastructure remains as a vestige of the strategic and social importance this location held during the Cold War.
