Coconut Grove’s Ransom Everglades has purchased its neighbor property, La Brisa, for $36.6 million.
“We can’t pass up the opportunity to buy this beautiful property,” said Ransom Everglades Head of School Penny Townsend. “The purchase will allow us to improve our facilities, add vital greenspace and continue our long tradition of respecting, protecting and learning from the treasures of Old Florida and Miami’s precious coastal ecosystems.”
The purchase will allow Ransom Everglades to enhance educational experiences for students by providing additional access to the bay and a vast lawn shaded by lush tree canopies and dense mangroves. It will also enable the school to undertake a planned revitalization of the academic facilities on its original, century-old campus.
Ransom Everglades consists of two campuses: the Ransom Upper School (Ransom campus) for students grades 9 through 12, located at 3575 Main Highway; and the middle school (grades 6 through 8) at the Everglades campus at 2045 S. Bayshore Drive. The Ransom part of the private school was founded by Paul C. Ransom in 1903 in its present location as the winter campus of his boys boarding school. In 1955, Marie and Edward Swenson founded the Everglades School for Girls, and in 1974 the schools merged to become the Ransom Everglades School.
La Brisa sits at 3551 Main Highway and borders Ransom’s Upper School. The property is what Forbes once called ” Miami’s most expensive listing.” The La Brisa property has previously been listed for as much as $65 million and sits on land that originally belonged to Kirk Monroe, a founding member of the Florida Audubon society.
The 1920’s Mediterranean-style mansion was designed by architects Kiehnel and Elliott for John B. Semple as his “winter cottage”. The 17,141 square foot estate has 9 bedrooms, 8 bath full bathrooms and 3 half-baths, a 4-car coach house with 2-bedrooms plus a 2-bedroom “Key West style” guest cottage. The 6.9 acre property features a natural, spring-fed pool and 207-feet of water frontage along Biscayne Bay with an elevated walkway through the property’s mangroves. There is a protected boat slip in the 536-foot long canal bordering the north side of property.
Historic Ransom Everglades’ purchase of the equally historic La Brisa is a match made in Miami heaven. It is also one of Miami-Dade County’ top ten highest priced home sales and the most expensive purchase ever made for a single family home in Coconut Grove.