Legendary real estate agent Alicia Cervera, a leading figure in South Florida’s luxury high-rise market, lives with her husband surrounded by remnants of the Old World, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Her traditional Mediterranean-style home in Coral Gables, far from the glittering towers of downtown Miami, is decorated with colonial-era silver from her native Peru and a French chandelier, a knight’s suit of armor from medieval Spain and an original table centerpiece salvaged from the Sheraton Key Biscayne Hotel before it was torn down.
The 5,500-square-foot home has doubled in size since Cervera and her husband, Javier, bought it in 1978. With $2 million spent on renovations, the house now also boasts an expansive patio and a swimming pool surrounded by roses and fruit trees, according to the Journal.
Cervera Real Estate, which Cervera, 83, founded in 1971 after she and her family fled Cuba following the Bay of Pigs invasion, generated more than $1 billion in sales last year, the Journal said.
“The city has grown tremendously and I don’t think any of the past homes or hotels were a better use,” she was quoted as saying. “I love the way Miami has grown from a town to a city—and that I was a part of the city’s growth.” [WSJ] –Emily Schmall