Remember earlier in the Fall when we told you about Al Capone’s historic mansion was facing demolition? Real Estate developer, Todd Glaser, and his business partner, Nelson Gonzalez, had purchased the beach house with the intention of tearing it to the ground and building a luxury home, but now it sounds like the infamous gangster’s home could be saved from destruction.
Al Capone purchased the house for $40,000 back in 1928 when he was just 29 years old. The mansion soon became the gangster’s idyllic refuge in which to hide away from the bitter Chicago winters and his enemies.
Capone was convicted for tax evasion three years later and served seven and a half years of prison in Alcatraz. When he was released, the gangster nicknamed “Scarface” returned to his Miami residence where he lived until he died in one of the guestrooms of a heart attack back in 1947.
On Tuesday, January 11, Miami Beach’s Historic Preservation Board unanimously voted to ask the city’s planning department for a historic designation report on Capone’s former 6,000-square-foot mansion at 93 Palm Island.
This is the next step for the historic preservation of the site, but the process of designating the site as historically significant could take up to a year. The Miami Beach Commission will be the one to determine whether the house is ultimately saved.