Tour a $60 million mansion in Delray Beach, Florida

The owners of a waterfront mansion in Delray Beach, Florida, are poised to break local price records with a home that offers old-school Italian flair above ground and hidden character below ground.

While the upper floors are adorned with 300 stone columns, vaulted ceilings, and even frescoes painted in Florence, Italy, the home’s basement is packed with modern luxuries, including a supercar gallery, a sparkling tequila bar, and a steel safe filled with piles of cash.

The two distinct design themes are incorporated into a limestone-clad home on South Ocean Boulevard, an ultra-luxurious neighborhood in town. The more than 23,000-square-foot home is called “Mar Pietra,” which means “sea stone” in Italian.

“There’s a lot of stone in the house, so it seemed appropriate,” owner Massimo Musa told CNBC.

Musa founded and sold several companies in the eye care industry, as well as a real estate developer, and built Mal Pietra with his ex-wife.

This passion project took five years to complete and employed many artisans, painters and sculptors from Italy. Tons of limestone were shipped from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, hand-carved marble was brought in from Verona, Italy, and massive cedar planks arrived from Colombia.

According to the listing, the massive home sits on 100 feet of waterfront. The main residence and guest house have a combined nine bedrooms, 12 full bathrooms and seven half bathrooms. A climate-controlled underground garage adds another 4,000 square feet of space, and covered areas, including a gorgeous loggia, add even more space, including a separate kitchen, bar, lounge and dining area.

The massive mansion is five times larger than the average home sold in Deray Beach in the first quarter, and its eight-figure price is more than 18 times the average sales price of luxury homes in the area, which is about $3.3 million, according to the Elliman Report, which defines luxury homes as the top 10 percent of sales.

The highest sales price ever achieved in Deray Beach was a property also on South Ocean Boulevard that sold for $34 million in 2021. According to public records, the highest sales price per square foot was also recorded in 2021, at just under $2,600 per square foot. Mar Pietra’s asking price would certainly fit that value criteria.

The trophy home’s massive lot and huge oceanfront lawn are a rare sight in this coastal part of Palm Beach County, and Musa attributes that to the land’s unique parcel’s history.

According to public records, he bought the property, along with the land across from the Intracoastal Waterway, for $9 million in 2002. At the time, a hotel stood on the waterfront parcel, making the land subject to hotel zoning regulations. Musa, who immigrated to the United States from Italy, demolished the old structure and built a waterfront home that paid homage to his native country.

Musa said that after the hotel was demolished, the property remained zoned for hotels, which allowed the homes to be built on larger lots with smaller setbacks, and even closer to the shoreline than current residential zones typically allow.

That also includes a portion of the waterfront property that the hotel’s owners cleared decades ago that would never be allowed under current regulations, Musa told CNBC. That clearing is now a lush, evergreen lawn made of artificial turf that stretches across the back of the 1-acre lot, bordering the natural vegetation on the sand.

The home sits 21 feet above sea level, and its size is impressive, but like many properties in this price range, finding a buyer isn’t always easy. The property has been on and off the market since December 2021, but its $60 million price tag has remained stable. It’s currently listed for sale by South Florida real estate broker Senada Azem of Douglas Elliman.

“This trophy mansion is one of South Florida’s most stunning custom luxury properties, designed to evoke timeless elegance,” Azem told CNBC.

According to Elliman Reports, inventory of luxury single-family homes increased more than 12% in the first quarter compared to a year ago, while the average sales price of luxury single-family homes in Delray Beach fell more than 33%.

Despite data suggesting the market may be facing headwinds, Azem remains confident in asking prices and South Florida’s luxury real estate market.

“The ultra-luxury real estate market will continue to thrive,” she said. “Affluent clients love Palm Beach County and value oceanfront locations, privacy and exclusivity above all else.”

To support his claim, Azem points to a sale in Highland Beach, just a quarter mile down the street, where an oceanfront home traded for $50 million this May, or more than $2,800 per square foot. On this stretch of coast, Mar Pietra would be a relative bargain: A smaller nearby home, also on South Ocean Boulevard, recently sold for $74 million, or about $5,100 per square foot.

Azem said Mal Pietra’s premium price is due in large part to its construction quality and the property’s unusual zoning permit, which she describes as priceless.

“These generous zoning permits allowed our clients to create truly unique properties that would not have been possible otherwise,” she said.

It’s hard to imagine a potential buyer having a problem with the lot being too small, but Azem said it’s not an uncommon occurrence in this part of Florida, so real estate brokers and their clients are prepared to offer a solution.

“What’s really unique about this home is the fact that my clients intend to sell it along with a parcel on the Intracoastal Waterway, making it the only ocean-to-intracoastal complex in Delray Beach, Florida.”

Azem said the two-lot deal would provide enough land for another waterfront home, including a rare spot along the Intracoastal Waterway to moor a large yacht. He said the transaction price for the full package would be discussed exclusively with potential buyers.

The home’s driveway passes through a large arch called a porte-cochere that leads to a circular motor court. Inside the limestone structure is a two-story guesthouse with three bedrooms, three full bathrooms and two half bathrooms, spanning more than 2,700 square feet.

Beyond the circular motor court is a massive stone staircase that ascends to the main residence.

An arch at the top of the staircase leads to a central outdoor courtyard, the design of which Musa says was inspired by Miami’s Vizcaya Museum and Gardens.

The courtyard leads to the home’s front entrance, where a butterfly staircase soars above a two-story foyer.

The home’s library is two stories high, with a spiral staircase leading up to the second floor, and the room is stocked with much more than just books.

Musa said the cedar-clad room’s design was inspired by the Vanderbilt Mansion, while the ceiling fresco was inspired by the Sistine Chapel. Azem told CNBC that the mural was painted in Florence, Italy, and then shipped to Florida to be attached to the ceiling, where an artist applied the finishing touches.

The lower library level includes an onyx bar and lounge area, while upstairs, windows surrounding the home office offer sweeping views of the pool and ocean.

The main suite is also on the second floor and has views from every window.

The suite’s two bathrooms are contemporary in design and feature imported marble and walk-in closets. The white marble bathroom flows seamlessly into a boutique-style walk-in closet that includes a cabinet island, jewelry display case and separate shoe closet.

Deep inside the dunes where Mar Pietra is built lies an underground hideaway with a totally different design: more modern and filled with contemporary luxuries.

The car park opens into a lounge designed for those who like to admire their beloved cars. A curved glass wall separates the lounge from the garage, offering great views of the parked supercars. The iron safe in the side wall is a work of art, with a working door and a pile of money inside.

The lower level also features a dedicated tequila bar, clad in quartzite, where lights embedded in the stone illuminate the surface after dark, casting a milky glow.

There’s also a state-of-the-art theater, with floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall electronic screens, one of two movie theaters in the home.