Selling Their Parents ‘American Dream,’ Sisters List a 20-Acre Family Compound Outside Miami

Miami mansion

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A 20-acre compound with three residences and 4,000 fruiting lychee trees has come to market, offering a rare opportunity to own a sprawling piece of land on the outskirts of Miami.

The property is being sold by Rosie Thuemler and Maggie Bastanzuri, sisters whose parents purchased the land—comprising four 5-acre parcels—in 2000 for about $120,000 per parcel, according to Bastanzuri, 58, who is retired. The compound, which includes a main house, secondary house and guest house built by the family in 2005, was listed for $11.5 million in late February by Cristina Soler of One Sotheby’s International Realty.

In its heyday under the family’s ownership, the property was multigenerational with Bastanzuri’s family of four and her parents in the 13,300-square-foot, seven-bedroom main house and Thuemler’s family of three in the 9,000-square-foot, five-bedroom secondary house. Now that the sisters’ parents have passed, they’re looking to downsize.

The large inland estate served as a beloved multigenerational property.
The large inland estate served as a beloved multigenerational property.

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“This property really is the realization of their American dream,” Thuemler, 62 and the owner of the Miami-based call center AnswerHero, said of her parents, who emigrated from Cuba in 1973 after a stint in Spain. Their father, Remberto Bastanzuri, went on to found Atlas Paper Mills, a producer of recycled paper products.

When their father purchased the property, about 36 miles southwest of Miami Beach, the area was the hinterlands. “It was pitch black,” at night, Thuemler recalled. “No one even knew it existed.”

But times change, and while the property isn’t the beachside mansion that may spring to mind when thinking of pricey Miami real estate, the sisters believe its location is a real boon.

“This is a totally different perspective of life in Miami,” Thuemler said. “You’re literally 20 minutes away from the Keys, you’re 40 minutes away from the beach, you’re 10 minutes away from a private airport, but yet once you get there it’s like being in a resort. It’s like your own world.”

Soler added, “In Miami, it’s very rare to find such a large piece of land belonging to the same people.”

The compound’s three houses contain a total of 14 bedrooms, 10 full bathrooms and two half bathrooms. The main house has perks like 20-foot ceilings in the entertaining spaces, which include a dedicated party room with a bar.

The main house has perks like 20-foot ceilings in the entertaining spaces, which include a dedicated party room with a bar.
The main house has perks like 20-foot ceilings in the entertaining spaces, which include a dedicated party room with a bar.

Realtor.com

Behind the main home is a pool with a hot tub as well as a concrete ATV track that the family used as a walking path. Soler noted it could also possibly be used as a helipad, though no one’s ever tried to land a helicopter on the property, according to the sisters. The secondary home also has a pool as well as a gazebo with an outdoor kitchen.

The sisters said the property’s over 10 acres of lychee trees, planted in 2005, are professionally managed and the fruit sold, but that the endeavor is not a money-maker and is rather an effort of love.

What Thuemler and Bastanzuri will miss most about the property is roaming the rows of lychee trees with their family, harvesting the fruit in the summer, and enjoying Thuemler’s husband’s fresh lychee martinis.

“I would hope that whoever buys it enjoys the same feeling of family and love that we had,” Thuemler said. “I hope whoever comes in enjoys that in their own way.”

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