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Tag: South Beach

  • Gianni Versace Mansion Sells for a Bargain $41.5M

    And the winning bid goes to VM South Beach LLC, winners of the auction for the seaside Miami property made famous by the murder of former-owner Gianni Versace.

    “The auction of this iconic South Florida villa closed at 41.5 million dollars, which was the last price offered by VM South Beach LLC. We think is a very good deal and we are happy with it,” Lamar Fisher, president of Fisher Auction Company, reported.

    The 23,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style villa, called Casa Casuarina, was auctioned fully furnished. It houses 10 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and a 24-karat gold-lined swimming pool. Versace bought the property and a hotel next door in 1992. Both were in disrepair and he spent $33 million on renovations. The Versace family sold the property in 2000 to telecomm entrepreneur Peter Loftin for $19 million after Gianni Versace’s murder.

    Loftin has been trying to sell the mansion for over a year, starting at $125 million, reducing to $75 million before the auction, called because lenders foreclosed on Loftin. The auction started bids at $25 million ending in just 20 minutes with a final bid from Joe Nakash, investor with VM South Beach and chairman of Jordache (jeans) Enterprises (pictured here).

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    Though Nakash promises to leave the property, “as it is,” plans are to develop the mansion into a hotel. Nakash and fellow investor, Eli Gindi, own the neighboring Victor Hotel. The two properties will be combined and the group plans to ask the Versace family for permission to name it in the designer’s honor.

    The two other bidders were Eric Trump, on behalf of father Donald Trump, and Glenn Straub, owner of the Palm Beach Polo and Country Club. If you are thinking you should have joined in the bidding, requirements to participate were a $3 million deposit placed in escrow and at least $40 million available in liquid assets.

    Versace, famed Italian fashion designer, was murdered just outside of the villa in 1997. The killer, Andrew Cunanan, committed suicide days after Versace’s death, which became part of a three-month killing spree.

    [Images via Fisher Auction Company Facebook and Local10.com.]

  • Rice Diet Center in North Carolina Closes

    Rice Diet Center in North Carolina Closes

    The Rice Diet Program, formerly a part of Duke University’s medical center, has officially closed its doors after 70 years of operation. The diet was founded in the 1930s by German immigrant Dr. Walter Kempner. Dr. Kempner stated that his original goal was not to create a diet program, but instead to create a regimen that would combat high blood pressure and kidney disease. However, the program went on to have the positive side effects of treating angina pectoris, heart failure, diabetes, hyperchlosterolemia, and obesity. The rice diet’s success toward fighting obesity became the program’s selling point, though. Many actors and actresses during the time heard about the effects of the rice diet and sought out Dr. Kempner’s practice in Durham, North Carolina. And, as life goes in American culture, the average citizens followed their idols footsteps in waves.

    One woman who took her struggles to North Carolina after hearing the success stories of celebrities was Jean Renfro Anspaugh. Based on her experiences and others, she wrote the book Fat Like Us. According to Anspaugh, the center was run like a military bootcamp: “One ate rice and fruit and walked. The staff didn’t care what you thought, only what you ate and how often you exercised.” The center was run so strictly by Dr. Kempner, in fact, that it was the subject of several lawsuits in 1993, one of which even claimed that the patient was whipped with a riding crop whenever she deviated from the diet or gained weight.

    Despite the boot-camp-esque qualms, the rice diet did achieve results. The program was so successful that it allowed Duke to open the Duke Diet and Fitness Center and to become one of the top science universities in the United States. Shelly Green, the president of the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau, stated that visitors to the center accounted for $80 million of revenue each year.

    So why did the center shut down after 70 years of success? One would have to believe that the recent trend of diverse and ever-more intense diet fads have simply pushed the old-school rice diet out of the way. While the rice diet does reduce the amount of calories one eats per day, it is very carbohydrate heavy. All the diet trends today seem to be more protein heavy (such as the Atkins and South Beach), ensuring that people have a feeling of “fullness” while still reducing the amount of calories they consume.

    Drs. Robert and Kitty Rosati, the couple who was running the center when it closed, are not going to allow the Rice Diet to completely die-out, however. Since the doors of the center in Durham closed, the Rosatis have started leading rice diet retreats. This past December, the couple led a rice diet retreat in the Smokey Mountains and have intentions to lead another retreat in Italy soon. (How one can eat just rice and fruit in Italy, I will never know…)

    Image via Facebook