Florida Home Asking $60 Million Aims to Set a Record

“The beach is really important to me,” said Mr. Musa, the Italian-born, 55-year-old, who spent his childhood summer on the ocean in Europe. “In some areas of Florida, the homes are so far from the ocean that you don’t feel like you’re part of the ocean, and some homes are so close to the ocean that you don’t really have a beach.”

He bought the Delray Beach plot, plus half an acre of waterfront property across the street, for $9.5 million and spent half a decade building a roughly 26,000-square-foot home with his then-wife, Carrie Wiko. They moved home in early 2008.

Now, the property is on the market for $60 million. If fetched near or at the asking price, it would be the most expensive home ever sold in the city, according to agent Evan Musa of Premier Estate Properties, Mr. Musa’s nephew.

Mr. Musa immigrated from Italy to Indiana in the late 1960s with his family. He moved to Florida in the 1980s to open an optics store with his brother. He is now a real estate developer and co-founder of several companies in the eye care field, including My Eyelab, Lasik Vision Institute, Eyeglass World, and Stanton Optical.

He said building his home in Delray was a passion project. He traveled on artist journeys from Italy, imported hand-carved limestone from Mexico, and imported wood and iron from South America.

Mr. Musa said he drew inspiration from buildings he saw on his travels. “I got my thoughts from the places I used to go,” he said. “If there was a ceiling that I really loved and saw somewhere in a part of my life that always stuck with me, and had the opportunity to realize that in my home one day, then I took that opportunity.”

At the entrance to the property, an arched corridor connected to the three-bedroom guest house opens onto a car court. The ceiling of this corridor, he said, was modeled on the ceilings of the restored Flagler Museum in Palm Beach.

At the other end of the parking lot, a limestone staircase topped with arches and columns leads to the main house’s foyer.

The house is designed around an enclosed central courtyard decorated with statues. It serves as the centerpiece of the house, said Mr. Musa, and was inspired by the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami.

Next to the main living room, which was designed to resemble the palace that Mr. Moses saw in Rome, is a two-story club room used to entertain guests. The room, which doubles as a library, has walls lined with bookshelves and windows offering ocean views. On the ceiling is a fresco painted by Florentine artists.

In addition to the club room, Mr. Musa said the house “has all the amenities anyone could want”. There is a gym, a wine cellar of nearly 1,000 bottles, and two cinemas – one official for guests and one added for Mr. Musa’s three children.

Outside, Mr. Musa said he wanted to create a relaxing space to enjoy ocean views. Under a large loggia, there is a bar, grill, and lounge area. There is also a swimming pool of different depths.

Across the street, half an acre serves as the garden of the house, said Mr. Moses, with a pier, another pool, and a covered pavilion with a bar.

The Musa family are now divorced, and with his children out of the house, Mr. Musa said it was time to downsize. The home was listed for sale briefly in April of this year, first for $59.995 million and then $79.995 million, before it was put on the market.

Mr. Musa said the reason for raising the price was that he decided to include an additional half acre in the sale. This time, the park was not included in the purchase price, although the buyer can negotiate to purchase it, according to Evan Musa.

But even with the lower listing price, the home is still on track to be the most expensive home listed in Delray Beach, according to Evan Moses. The current record holders are two homes that sold for $34 million each, according to Realtor.com.