Powerboat racer sells Belle Meade mansion for neighborhood record of $13M

A waterfront mansion on Miami’s Belle Meade Island sold for $13.3 million, a record for the neighborhood.

Powerboat racer, developer and poker player Ross Romash and his wife, Caroline Romash, sold the 8,200-square-foot home at 1133 Belle Meade Island Drive to Waterfront LLC.

(iUse for One Sotheby’s International Realty)

The buyer is a Puerto Rican LLC that lists José A. López Cáceres as an authorized person, records show.

The home, with five bedrooms, five bathrooms and one half-bathroom, was completed this year. The sale beats the previous record of $7 million for the waterfront spec home at 7311 Belle Meade Island Drive, which was sold to Televisa Studios head Patricio Wills and his wife Adriana Santos in October 2020.

(iUse for One Sotheby’s International Realty)

The Romashes mansion includes a 12-car garage, poker table, six Tesla power walls, an art gallery and a 50-foot infinity pool with a 10-foot waterfall, according to the listing. Allan Kleer and Fabian Garcia-Diaz with One Sotheby’s International Realty represented the buyer and seller.

The couple bought the property in 2017 for $1.6 million, and filed an application with the city of Miami the following year to build a new pool and spa on the property, records show.

(iUse for One Sotheby’s International Realty)

In April, Romash paid about $2.5 million for a bayfront property two doors down at 1155 Belle Meade Island Drive.

The latest deal shows how prices have risen in many neighborhoods throughout South Florida. In Belle Meade, sales in recent years include red light camera millionaire John Petrozza’s $10.4 million purchase of two bayfront homes in 2018, and prior to that, restaurateur Steven Perricone’s sale of his waterfront home for $4.3 million.

Residential sales in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties of $10 million and up from December 2020 to November 2021 topped that of the previous two years combined, according to an analysis by The Real Deal.