The mansion where the gangster spent his final years was demolished in 2023, so the buyer paid for bare dirt and an address on a guard-gated island.
Key Takeaways
- The 0.7-acre vacant lot at 93 Palm Avenue, where Al Capone once lived, sold for $21 million even though the mansion was demolished in 2023.
- The same week, a newly built mansion at 270 South Hibiscus Drive sold for $51.5 million, a record for both Palm and Hibiscus islands.
- On Miami Beach's guard-gated islands, the land, the water frontage, and the address drive value far more than the house itself.
According to The Real Deal, the 0.7-acre waterfront parcel at 93 Palm Avenue in Miami Beach, once home to Al Capone, changed hands for $21 million with nothing standing on it. The mansion was torn down in 2023, so the buyer paid purely for the land and the address, and a second island deal the same week shows exactly why that math holds up.
What actually sold on Palm Island?
The property is a 0.7-acre waterfront lot at 93 Palm Avenue, on one of Miami Beach's guard-gated islands. Al Capone bought the estate in 1928 and died there in 1947, but the villa was demolished in 2023, so the deal was purely about the land. The seller, an LLC named after the property, paid $15.5 million for it in 2021, making the $21 million sale a gain of about $5.5 million in roughly five years. It is the same teardown-to-land pattern we have seen play out in a nearby sale on Hibiscus Island.
The buyer was revealed to be Ilya Karpov, a Russian investor and former director of the OGO Group, once one of Russia's largest grain and sunflower oil producers, which went bankrupt in 2013. Karpov has been active in Miami Beach real estate for about a decade, and the same week this sale surfaced, he sold his own waterfront mansion on North Bay Road for $72 million. Given that track record, he reads as a spec builder here, more likely to build and sell than to move in, though that is our take on the pattern rather than a stated plan.
Why is the land worth more than the house?
On these islands, the value lives in the dirt, the water frontage, and the guard gate, not necessarily in whatever sits on top. Location is the whole pitch. As Larry Mastropieri said on the Discover South Florida Podcast: "You're minutes to South Beach, and you're also minutes to downtown. It's literally the in-between. You can't get more in the middle than this." That central position, plus a finite number of lots behind a single gate, is what lets bare land command eight figures.
The proof landed the same week one island over. A newly built mansion at 270 South Hibiscus Drive sold for $51.5 million, a record for both Palm and Hibiscus islands, at roughly $4,900 per square foot. Here is what makes that number tell the story: it beat larger, more expensive homes on a per-foot basis, and the seller had bought the site as an unfinished shell for $19 million in 2021 and built it to sell. The house indeed helped the record sale, with a soundproof nightclub, a pool, and two docks that can hold a 105-foot yacht.
Thinking about buying, building, or selling trophy waterfront property in South Florida? The land often matters more than the house, and pricing it right takes a specialist. Reach out to a real estate agent at The Mastropieri Group, Realtors®, or call (561) 544-7000.
What makes 93 Palm Avenue special?
The address carries a story few can match. Al Capone was the Chicago crime boss who ran bootlegging, gambling, and racketeering operations during Prohibition, and was long linked to the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Federal prosecutors could never pin the violence on him, so they convicted him of tax evasion in 1931 and sent him to prison for 11 years. After his release, he retreated to the Palm Island villa he had bought in 1928, and he died there in 1947.
That history is what gives 93 Palm Avenue its pedigree, and it is part of what a buyer pays for even with the house gone. The villa left the family in the 1970s and was demolished in 2023 amid a preservation debate. That the bare lot still fetched $21 million is the clearest sign that on these islands, the land and the gate are the asset, although there certainly must be an Al Capone premium included in the price.
Is the Capone premium actually worth it?
For an investor, the appeal is obvious: buy a trophy lot, build a spec mansion, and aim for a number like the $51.5 million next door. But the math is tighter than it looks. A 7,000-square-foot home at $2,000 a foot or more is easily a $14 million build, so a buyer could be all-in near $35 million before hoping to sell for a profit. And the Capone lot is smaller than the double lot that set the record, which makes that target price harder to reach. It is the same puzzle behind a buyer paying $18 million for an unfinished Palm Beach mansion: the entry price is only half the story.
As Larry put it, weighing whether the history pencils out: "I get the Capone premium, that could be pretty cool. But I don't know, you really gotta make it work." The Capone name adds cachet, but the spread between what you spend and what you can sell for is where these deals are won or lost.
Watch More on This Topic: Watch this segment | Full Episode | Last week's recap
Frequently Asked Questions
How much did Al Capone's former lot sell for?
The vacant 0.7-acre waterfront lot at 93 Palm Avenue in Miami Beach sold for $21 million. The original mansion, where Al Capone lived and died, was demolished in 2023, so the buyer paid for the land and the address alone rather than for any existing home.
Why would an empty lot sell for $21 million?
On Miami Beach's guard-gated Palm and Hibiscus islands, value comes mostly from the land, the water frontage, and the security and prestige of the address. There are only a limited number of these lots, and their central location between South Beach and downtown keeps demand high even when nothing is built on them.
What is the record home sale on Hibiscus Island?
A newly built mansion at 270 South Hibiscus Drive sold for $51.5 million, or about $4,900 per square foot, setting a record for both Hibiscus and Palm islands. It beat larger, more expensive homes on a per-square-foot basis, and the seller had bought the site as an unfinished shell in 2021.
Who bought Al Capone's former Palm Island lot?
The buyer was Ilya Karpov, a Russian investor active in Miami Beach real estate for about a decade. Based on his history of building and selling homes on these islands, the purchase looks like a build-to-sell project rather than a personal residence, though that is an interpretation rather than a confirmed plan.
Is Al Capone's mansion still standing?
No. The original villa was demolished in 2023 amid a preservation debate, leaving only the bare lot. The property's value now rests entirely on the land, the waterfront location, and the well-known Capone history attached to the address.
Local help for South Florida luxury buyers and sellers
Whether you are buying a trophy lot, planning a build, or selling a waterfront home, it helps to work with a team that understands how land, location, and scarcity drive luxury prices. Reach out to The Mastropieri Group, Realtors® in Boca Raton, or call (561) 544-7000 for practical, hands-on guidance across South Florida.
93 Palm Avenue, Palm Island (the former Al Capone lot)
270 South Hibiscus Drive, Hibiscus Island (the $51.5 million record sale)
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