MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — The Florida house that gangster Al Capone owned for nearly two decades — and the place where he died — is facing demolition.
The new owners of the nine-bedroom, Miami Beach house plan to demolish it after buying it for $10.75 million this summer.
One of the owners, developer Todd Glaser, said the home, which is about three feet below sea level, has flood damage and standing water underneath it.
“The house is a piece of crap,” Glaser said. “It’s a disgrace to Miami Beach.”
The other owner is Glaser’s business partner, Nelson Gonzalez, an investor and senior vice president of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM.
The owners plan to build a two-story, modern spec home with eight bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a Jacuzzi, spa and sauna.
The house has been placed on the September agenda for possible historic designation by the city of Miami Beach.
But Glaser said that won’t get in the way of the demolition plans.
Capone bought the house for $40,000 in 1928 and returned to it often.
The gangster nicknamed “Scarface” died at the home in 1947 of a heart attack.
The home is believed to be where Capone and his associates plotted the St. Valentine’s Day massacre, in which seven members of George “Bugs” Moran’s North Side gang were gunned down inside the S.M.C. Cartage Co. garage at 2122 N. Clark St. in Lincoln Park in 1929.
