Hilda Maria Bacardi, the sister of Facundo Bacardi, chairman of the largest privately held, family-owned spirits company in the world, is asking $27.26 million for a 12-bedroom, 13-bath mansion in Coral Gables, Florida, the pricey Miami suburb where the University of Miami is located.
Hilda Maria and Facundo are the great great grandchildren of the Bacardi Rum distillery’s founder, Facundo Bacardí Massó, who started the company in 1862. In 1960, after the nationalization of Cuba’s distilleries under Fidel Castro, the family fled to America, settling in Miami, where their architectural patronage became famous after the construction of Midtown’s Bacardi Building, designed by Cuban architect Enrique Gutierrez in 1963 and now held up as a prime example of the Tropical Modern style.
The Coral Gables house is a bit more Miami conventional, however, taking its cues from the area’s rich Spanish Revival tradition with terra cotta roofs and overhangs, arched loggias and columned pergolas and a paver drive leading to a pair of multi-car garages. The 1.3-acre plot includes over 480 feet of water frontage with a 100-foot private dock as well as a swimming pool, and the 10-bedroom main house includes a wine cellar, three separate kitchens, an elevator serving all three floors and Lalique crystal faucets in the bathrooms. All in all, the house has about 21,000 square feet of interior space.
A two-bedroom guesthouse is connected to the main home by a covered walkway, and a pair of converging staircases lead from the house to the tree-lined lawn. Nestled into the exclusive Cocoplum community, the mansion, at 300 Costanero Road, is the second most expensive property in Coral Gables, behind 1 Casuarina Concourse, listed at $39 million.