Bal Harbour

Now Indian Creek—the very secure and ver y private approximately 294-acre barrier island just north of Miami Beach, with its own mayor and tiny police force—is among the country's most a uent zip codes, home to football star Tom Brady, financier Carl Icahn, and a cer tain daughter of Donald Trump. Last year, when Je‡ Bezos, the world's third wealthiest person, announced his intention to shift his primar y residence from sogg y Seattle to sunny south Florida, he naturally gravitated towards Indian Creek—purchasing adjoining plots there for a combined $147 million. The tabloid press have since ta ken to ca lling the island Miami's "Billionaire Bunker." Bezos is just the latest in a flood of uber-rich who since the pandemic have been buying proper t y and laying down roots in and around Miami—often paying huge sums for teardowns as they prepare to erect new mega-mansions. Many, like Bezos, who graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High School in 1982, are returning home after making their for tunes elsewhere. Greater Miami is now the fastest-growing center of high-net-worth transplants in the country, according to the USA Wealth Report, an independent study released in 2023. The new inf lux of centi-millionaires and billionaires is leaving its mark on a cit y long defined in the public imagination by its most larger-than-life citizens, fictional and otherwise—from Tony Montana and Crockett and Tubbs to Ricky Martin, Madonna, and Gianni Versace. Ranking on the Forbes 400 List of Richest Americans has become the ultimate calling card in an area where mega-yacht berths and private jet parking spots are in short supply. Builders are scrambling to add more hangars to the ver y busy private jet hub at Miami-Opa locka Executive Airport. And deep-pocketed newcomers are upping the ante on charitable giving. Give Miami Day, an annual citywide fundraising drive, had its best year in 2023, raising more than $34 million. Miami's cultural insti- tutions and other local nonprofits have never had it so good. "I think you're going to see a leveling with other great philanthropic centers across the country, if we haven't already," says Alex Gartenfeld, artistic director of the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, which is celebrating its 10th birthday this year. The Bass in Miami Beach, which just turned 60, has added a slew of a uent newcomers to its museum board in the last few years, along with a new group of supporters, Future Bass, encompassing benefactors under 40. The big-ticket "co-chair" tables for the museum's Januar y gala, The Bass Ball, quickly sold out, at $22,500 apiece. "We're hoping for a few big birthday gifts this year," says Silvia Karman Cubiñá, exec- utive director and chief curator, of the museum's milestone year. Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sánchez—Miami's most in-demand new party guests—aren't yet making a splash on the benefit circuit. But there are plenty of other billionaires showing up. "You can wish upon a star, or you can really harness a huge network of people who are worth between $100 million and $10 billion, who just happen not to be named Je‡ Bezos," says one cultural leader. On every big fundraiser's radar is Miami's reportedly second-richest new resident, the philanthropically-minded hedge fund honcho Ken Griªn (#22 on the Forbes 400) who moved here from Chicago two years ago. Griªn, who grew up in Boca Raton, paid over $106 million for a four- acre waterfront estate in Coconut Grove with two houses, 12 bedrooms, and roughly 25,000 square feet of living space. His company, Citadel, will soon have a new Miami headquarters in a steel skyscraper under construction in Brickell—adding a whole team of freewheeling hedge funders to the social whirl of the city. Once upon a time you might have been merely rich and still scored a home on Indian Creek. In 1979, Julio Iglesias, at the height of his Latin love song popularity, bought two waterfront acres there on Biscayne Bay for around $650,000 total. That's nearly $3 million in 2024 dollars, but still a bargain in today's overheated market. 132 BAL HARBOUR

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