Ex-Venezuelan politician who won Miss Universe sells Gables Estates mansion

Former Miss Universe and ex-Venezuelan politician Irene Sáez sold her Gables Estates mansion for $20 million.

Sáez and her husband, Venezuelan businessman Serafín García, sold the nearly 14,713-square-foot estate at 115 Arvida Parkway. The selling entity is Bidu Properties.

Oren Alexander (Credit: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images)

Oren Alexander and Isaac Lustgarten of Douglas Elliman represented the seller, while Belinda Sime of the Belinda Sime Team at Sime Realty Corp. represented the buyer. Sime and Alexander declined to comment on the buyer.

Records show 115 Arvida Parkway LLC was incorporated in late July and could be the buyer. The company is controlled by Jorge and Yanin Acevedo. Jorge is a doctor, and the couple own another home in Coral Gables.

Sáez won Miss Universe in 1981 and was once mayor of Chacao in Venezuela. She ran for president of Venezuela in 1998 and was governor of Nueva Esparta from 1999-2000.

Belinda Sime

The Gables Estates mansion hit the market for $25 million in May 2019. It was reduced to $22.5 million in November.

The two-story, eight-bedroom home features a master bedroom suite with three terraces, 280 feet of water frontage, a new seawall and dock, stone floors and mahogany woodwork. It was designed by Pacheco Martinez & Assoc. and completed in 2018.

The 38,000-square-foot lot last sold in 2010 for $4.15 million, records show. Bidu Properties paid $6.13 million for the vacant lot next door in 2014. Both are steps away from billionaire Mike Fernandez’s estate.

Like other high-end neighborhoods in South Florida, Gables Estates has seen an increase in activity during the pandemic.

In April, Leon Medical Centers founder Benjamin Leon Jr. sold a waterfront mansion at 620 Arvida Parkway in Gables Estates for $49 million, and Pharrell Williams paid $30 million for the waterfront home at 700 Casuarina Concourse.

At the end of last month, Mocca Construction paid $12.25 million for a partially completed spec mansion in Gables Estates, with plans to complete the house and list it for sale.

Write to Katherine Kallergis at kk@therealdeal.com