Star Island, Miami Beach: Who Lives There, What Sells, and How to Buy

Orienting yourself: what Star Island actually is

Most people first meet Star Island through a boat tour narration. The reality is simpler and far more useful to a buyer.

The island sits in Biscayne Bay between Downtown Miami and South Beach, immediately north of the MacArthur Causeway, just east of Palm and Hibiscus Islands, and south of the Venetian Islands. That orientation is worth stating carefully, because it is frequently published backwards. The US Census Bureau geocoder places Star Island Drive addresses at roughly 80.151 degrees west, while Palm Avenue on Palm Island and North and South Hibiscus Drive sit between 80.156 and 80.167 degrees west, which puts Star Island east of both. Census TIGER road centerlines put the MacArthur Causeway at about 25.772 degrees north where it passes the island, south of every Star Island address. The Real Deal describes it as a man-made island just off the MacArthur Causeway in Miami Beach, created by dredging during the 1920s development boom that produced most of Miami Beach's bay islands. It is not natural land. It was engineered, platted and sold as a trophy address from the beginning, and that original intent still governs how it trades a century later.

The island is governed by the City of Miami Beach. It is not a separate municipality, and it has no police force of its own. Its land area is very small relative to the value sitting on it, which is the whole point: a short loop of ground carrying an outsized share of Miami's trophy inventory.

How small? The Real Deal reported in 2026 that Star Island has about 30 homes. That single number explains most of what follows. A market with roughly thirty transactable assets behaves nothing like a market with three thousand.

There is one street. Star Island Drive runs as a loop around the perimeter, with homes on both the outer waterfront side and the inner side of the loop. That geometry is why the island reads as private without needing a private government to enforce it.

For the wider context on how Star Island sits alongside Miami's other trophy enclaves, see our guide to billionaire neighborhoods in Miami.

Who lives on Star Island

This is the question the island is known for, so here is a careful answer.

There is no published register of Star Island residents. What exists is press coverage and county property records, and the two do not always line up, because buyers at this level in Miami-Dade routinely take title through LLCs and trusts. Everything below is attributed to reporting we checked directly. Treat it as a record of who has been reported, not as a current occupancy list. People move, and estates here turn over more often than their reputations suggest.

Every name in this section is sourced to The Real Deal, the trade publication that covers Miami-Dade deed records most closely. Names that circulate on tour boats and in listing copy without that kind of attribution are not repeated here.

Reported current owners

• Gloria and Emilio Estefan. The Estefans are the longest-associated names with the island. The Real Deal reported in 2021 that they sold their Star Island guest house at 1 Star Island Drive for $35 million, and reported again in 2026 that they retain a larger estate on the island.
• Ken Griffin. The Citadel founder has assembled the largest contiguous holding on Star Island. The Real Deal reported in 2023 that he controls nearly 6.5 contiguous acres across 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 Star Island Drive, and repeated the roughly 6.5 acre figure in 2026.
• Rick Ross. The Real Deal reported in March 2026 that the rapper and record executive, whose legal name is William Leonard Roberts II, raised the mortgage on his estate at 37 Star Island Drive to $35 million, three years after paying $35 million for it in 2023.
• Phillip and Patricia Frost. The Real Deal has identified the Frost estate at 21 Star Island Drive in its coverage of the Griffin assemblage.
• Stuart Miller. The Lennar executive chairman has been reported by The Real Deal as a Star Island homeowner.
• Anthony Hsieh. The loanDepot founder has been reported by The Real Deal as a Star Island homeowner.
• Sean Combs. The Real Deal reported in July 2026 that Combs sold the estate at 1 Star Island Drive for $55 million and that property records show he still owns the adjacent estate at 2 Star Island Drive.
• Russell Weiner. The Real Deal reported that the billionaire paid $35.3 million in the fall of 2025 for the 1.1-acre property at 43 Star Island Drive.
• Frayda Lindemann. The Real Deal placed her home at 15 Star Island Drive in its account of the Griffin assemblage.

Reported past owners

• Rosie O'Donnell. The Real Deal reported that 43 Star Island Drive, sold to Russell Weiner in 2025, previously belonged to the former talk show host.
• Vlad Doronin. The Real Deal reported that the developer sold his Star Island estate for $120 million in March 2025, a record at the time for a home sale in Miami-Dade County.
• Alex Rodriguez. The Real Deal reported that Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez bought 13 Star Island Drive in 2020, that Rodriguez later acquired the lot at 14 Star Island Drive, and that in 2023 he sold that lot back to Griffin for $45.5 million.
• John Jansheski. The DenTek founder sold his estate at 27 Star Island Drive for $57 million in September 2023, per The Real Deal.

Two things follow from that list, and both matter more to a buyer than the names do.

First, the composition has shifted. The island that once read as a musician-and-athlete address now carries heavy weight from finance, homebuilding and mortgage-industry wealth. That shift moves the buyer pool, the renovation budgets and the floor under pricing.

Second, single-owner assemblage is a live force here. Griffin's roughly 6.5 acres, per The Real Deal, came out of seven separate lot numbers. When one buyer consolidates adjoining parcels into a compound, the count of transactable homes drops and does not come back. There is no mechanism to create a replacement lot in Biscayne Bay. That is the structural fact behind every price conversation on this island.

The guard gate, the causeway, and what "private" really means

Buyers ask about the gate constantly, and the honest answer is more nuanced than the marketing suggests.

Star Island is reached by one bridge from the MacArthur Causeway, landing at a staffed guard house. The connector has a name that rarely appears in listing copy. Census TIGER road centerlines show Bridge Road running north off the causeway and ending exactly where Star Island Drive begins, and those two segments are the whole road network into and around the island. The Miami Herald, reporting in October 2025 on a separate push to gate North Bay Road, listed Star Island among the Miami Beach neighborhoods that are already gated, alongside Palm and Hibiscus Islands, the Sunset Islands, Normandy Shores and Biscayne Point, and noted that all of those communities are separated by water from the city's main traffic grid. Water, not the guard house, is doing most of the work.

We are not going to characterize what the guard service may or may not lawfully refuse. That is a legal question about a specific right-of-way, and it is worth putting to the City of Miami Beach in writing if it is material to your decision. What we can say plainly: tour boats circle the island constantly, and the bay-facing elevation of every house on the outer ring is visible from the water. If your priority is genuine seclusion rather than a controlled front door, weigh that carefully.

Contrast it with the two obvious alternatives. Fisher Island has no road access at all and is reached only by ferry or private boat, which is a materially stronger barrier. Read our guide to living on Fisher Island if that is the trade you are weighing. Indian Creek Village is its own incorporated municipality with its own police department, which is a structurally different form of access control.

What Star Island offers instead is proximity. From the guard house you are minutes from South Beach and minutes from the causeway ramp toward Downtown and Brickell. The private aviation terminals north and south of the city are reachable without crossing the worst of the traffic. Ask your advisor to drive the routes at the times of day you will actually use them, because published estimates are close to meaningless here.

Nobody buys Star Island to disappear. They buy it to be central, on deep water, behind a gate, on an island whose name people recognize.

Lots, frontage, and why supply is structurally fixed

Star Island is waterfront-only. Every property on the loop fronts water. There is no interior, non-waterfront inventory of the kind you find on the mainland or even on parts of Palm and Hibiscus.

Frontage varies more than listing copy implies, and the variance is worth understanding before you anchor on a number. The Real Deal reported that 1 Star Island Drive sits on a 1.3-acre lot with 240 feet of water frontage. It reported that Rick Ross's nearly 1-acre estate at 37 Star Island Drive has 100 feet of water frontage and a 40-foot dock. Those two properties are on the same loop. Their water frontage differs by a factor of more than two. Never accept a frontage figure from a listing; confirm it by survey.

Lot scale is similarly uneven. The Real Deal has reported nearly 1-acre lots at 13, 14 and 37 Star Island Drive, a 1.1-acre property at 43, and a 1.3-acre parcel at 1. The useful takeaway is that an acre is a reasonable mental anchor for a single Star Island lot, and that anything materially larger is usually an assemblage rather than an original parcel.

The dock is the real asset. These are private docks with direct Biscayne Bay access. Depth, air draft and any expansion rights are parcel-specific and change with dredging and permitting history, so have them confirmed against current charts and the permit file for the specific folio rather than relying on a marketing phrase like "deep water."

The regulatory frame matters as much as the water depth, and it is more restrictive than most buyers expect. Florida Statutes section 258.397 designates Biscayne Bay an aquatic preserve covering the submerged bottom lands, the water column above them and all publicly owned islands within the boundary, while privately held uplands are excluded unless the Board of Trustees negotiates them in. In practice that means the house sits outside the preserve and the dock sits inside it. The same section directs that no seaward relocation of bulkhead lines be approved except where the proposed line is at the line of mean high water, which is the constraint that governs a seawall rebuild. If a seawall replacement or a dock extension is part of your plan for the property, price that before you offer.

Supply is fixed for four reasons that compound:

1. The island is finished. It was dredged to its final shape a century ago, and state law closes the door on repeating the exercise. Florida Statutes section 258.397 provides that no further dredging or filling of submerged lands of the preserve shall be approved or tolerated by the Board of Trustees, outside a narrow list of exceptions covering public navigation, public necessity or bay preservation, riprap for water quality, docks piers and marinas that meet specific findings, and the elimination of public health hazards or stagnant conditions. Manufacturing a new Star Island lot is not on that list.
2. The plat is old and the lots are big. Splitting a large waterfront estate lot would face zoning and neighbor resistance, and would destroy the value that makes the address work.
3. Assemblage removes lots permanently. Griffin's seven lot numbers now function as one holding.
4. Holding periods are long. Many owners here have no reason to sell, and turnover in any given year is low.

Availability on an island this small changes materially month to month. For a live picture, use the search below or speak to an advisor.

What the houses are

There is no single Star Island architectural style, and that is a genuine difference from Indian Creek or from the older parts of La Gorce.

Original stock survives. The Real Deal reported that the house at 1 Star Island Drive was built in 1940 and expanded in 1995, which is a fair illustration of the island's typical lifecycle: an older structure carried forward through a major expansion rather than demolished. Much of what a buyer tours today is contemporary tropical modernism, with flat roofs, deep overhangs, floor-to-ceiling glass on the bay elevation, and pools sited to read continuously with the water. A handful of estates are transitional, with traditional massing and a fully modern interior.

Scale is the constant, and it is worth grounding in verified numbers rather than a "typical" figure nobody can source. The Real Deal reported that the estate at 37 Star Island Drive measures 12,400 square feet, and that the house at 1 Star Island Drive is nearly 8,000 square feet. It also reported that Alex Rodriguez planned a 20,000-square-foot mansion for the vacant lot at 14 Star Island Drive before selling it back to Griffin. New construction here is delivered at the top of the Miami Beach market. What a specific lot can actually carry is a zoning and floor-area question, not a rule of thumb.

A practical note for buyers looking at older stock. The City of Miami Beach applies FEMA's 50 percent rule, and its own building department explains the arithmetic: the city sums the job values of all Miami Beach building permits over a rolling one-year period and divides by the property value as determined by the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser or a certified depreciated replacement cost appraisal. If that ratio reaches 0.50, the work is a substantial improvement and the structure must be brought into full compliance with current floodplain management and building code requirements for new construction. Every aspect of the structure, in the city's words. On an island with mid-century foundations and modern finished-floor-elevation standards, a phased renovation can cross that line without anyone intending it to. Have the analysis done before you write an offer.

Star Island compared with Indian Creek and La Gorce

Buyers at this level almost always look at all three. They solve different problems.

Star Island is the visible one. Central location, private dockage, a guard house, and an address that is instantly legible to anyone. It is the shortest drive to South Beach and to the causeway. It also sits on a tour-boat route and is the most publicly visible of the three. Buy it if you want presence, water and centrality.

Indian Creek Village is the private one. It is an incorporated village on its own island with its own police department, wrapped around a private golf course. Access control there is a municipal function rather than a contracted guard service, which is a different order of privacy. It sits further north, so the drive to South Beach is longer. Buy it if privacy and scarcity outrank convenience.

La Gorce Island is the quiet middle. Guard-gated, on the Miami Beach side, with a broader range of lot sizes and a lower entry point into gated waterfront living. It is the practical choice for buyers who want a gated waterfront house without competing for one of a very small number of trophy parcels.

For a direct side-by-side including access, governance and the buyer profile for each, read Indian Creek vs Star Island vs La Gorce.

The short version: Indian Creek sells privacy, La Gorce sells practicality, Star Island sells recognition on the water.

The 33139 context, and what the numbers actually mean

Star Island shares ZIP 33139 with South Beach, South of Fifth, Sunset Harbour and the Venetian Islands. That makes the ZIP a poor proxy for anything on this island. A median price for 33139 blends small South Beach studio condominiums with Star Island compounds. Ignore ZIP-level statistics here and judge the island on its own recorded sales.

Those recorded sales are worth reading as a set. The Real Deal reported $35 million for 1 Star Island Drive in 2021 and $55 million for the same property in July 2026. It reported $57 million for 27 Star Island Drive in 2023, $35 million for 37 Star Island Drive in 2023, $35.3 million for 43 Star Island Drive in 2025, and $120 million for the Doronin estate in March 2025, which was a Miami-Dade record at the time. Those are individual deals, not a market average, and the spread between them is mostly a function of lot size, frontage and whether the buyer was purchasing a house or a site.

What 33139 does give you is location. South of Fifth restaurants and the southern end of the beach, Sunset Harbour's marina services and provisioning, the Miami Beach Marina for tender and guest dockage, and Lincoln Road and the Convention Center district a few minutes north.

Flood zone and insurance deserve a line of their own. This is a dredged island in Biscayne Bay. Wind and flood coverage on an estate here is a serious annual number that varies by structure, elevation and carrier appetite. Get it quoted before you go under contract rather than during due diligence, and do not budget from a figure someone quoted for a different house.

Buying on Star Island

A few things about the process differ from an ordinary Miami Beach purchase.

Transactions are frequently off-market. Owners at this level often do not list. The Real Deal described the July 2026 sale of 1 Star Island Drive as an apparently off-market deal, and reported the 2023 Griffin and Rodriguez trades through sources rather than the MLS. If you are only watching public listings, you are not seeing the whole market.

Title is usually held in an entity. Both sides of these deals tend to be LLCs. The Real Deal's reporting names the selling entity at 1 Star Island Drive as 1 West Star Island LLC and the buying entity as JFStar LLC. That structure affects the closing timeline, the title work and the tax analysis.

Cash dominates, but financing exists. Portfolio and private-bank lending is real at this level. Ross's estate carries a balloon mortgage from a Brickell-based private lender, per The Real Deal, and the same outlet reported that the buyer of 1 Star Island Drive financed with an $18.5 million mortgage. Decide your financing posture early, because it changes your negotiating position.

Foreign buyers have specific exposure. FIRPTA withholding, entity structuring and estate tax planning all need to be settled before you make an offer.

Budget the friction. Documentary stamp tax, title insurance and survey on a purchase at this level are not rounding errors. Ask your advisor to price the closing line items before you sign.

Understand the guard-service billing. Miami-Dade County funds stationary guards and guardhouses at the entrances of residential communities through security guard special taxing districts, billed to owners as a non-ad valorem assessment on the annual property tax bill. The county also notes that districts inside a municipality require that municipality's agreement to create and operate them, and that a seller must inform buyers when a property sits inside such a district. Confirm which mechanism applies to the specific folio you are buying, and read the assessment line on the current tax bill rather than accepting a verbal figure.

Due diligence items specific to this island: seawall condition and age, dock permits and any Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve constraints on dock expansion, finished floor elevation against current code, the cumulative permit history against the city's 50 percent rule, and survey confirmation of actual water frontage rather than what a listing claims.

Frequently asked questions

Who lives on Star Island in Miami? The Real Deal has reported Star Island owners including Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Citadel founder Ken Griffin, rapper Rick Ross, Phillip and Patricia Frost, Lennar executive chairman Stuart Miller, loanDepot founder Anthony Hsieh, and Sean Combs. Billionaire Russell Weiner bought the estate once owned by Rosie O'Donnell. There is no public register of residents, and most trophy titles on the island are held through LLCs or trusts, so press reports and property records often differ.

Is Star Island in Miami or Miami Beach? It is in Miami Beach, not the City of Miami, despite being commonly searched as "Star Island Miami." The island sits in Biscayne Bay within the City of Miami Beach, ZIP 33139, and is reached by a bridge from the MacArthur Causeway. Its municipal services, zoning and building permits all come from Miami Beach.

Is Star Island gated? Yes. There is a staffed guard house at the single bridge entrance. The Miami Herald has listed Star Island among the gated Miami Beach neighborhoods, alongside Palm and Hibiscus Islands, the Sunset Islands, Normandy Shores and Biscayne Point, all of which are separated by water from the city's main traffic grid. It is not a private municipality in the way Indian Creek Village is, and it is not access-restricted in the way Fisher Island is. Tour boats pass the island regularly, so expect a controlled entrance rather than true seclusion.

How do you get to Star Island? One way by car: Bridge Road off the MacArthur Causeway between Downtown Miami and South Beach, crossing to the guard house and ending where Star Island Drive begins. Census TIGER road centerlines show no second road. By water, properties have private dockage on Biscayne Bay, which is why the island appeals so strongly to yacht owners.

Do all Star Island homes have private docks? Effectively yes. The island is waterfront-only, with homes fronting either Biscayne Bay on the outer ring of the loop or the interior water. Private dockage is the defining feature of the address. Dock size, depth, frontage and any expansion rights vary by parcel and should be verified by survey and permit review before you offer.

How is Star Island different from Indian Creek? Indian Creek is its own incorporated village with its own police force and a private golf course, and it sells privacy and extreme scarcity. Star Island sells centrality, dockage and recognition. Star Island is a much shorter drive to South Beach and the causeway. Indian Creek has the more restrictive access structure; Star Island is the more visible and more convenient address.

Why are there so few homes for sale on Star Island? The Real Deal reported in 2026 that the island has about 30 homes. It was dredged to its final shape a century ago and cannot be extended, Florida Statutes section 258.397 designates Biscayne Bay an aquatic preserve and bars further dredging or filling of its submerged lands outside a narrow list of exceptions, the lots are large and effectively unsubdividable, and buyers who assemble adjoining parcels into compounds permanently remove homes from the market. Add long holding periods among owners who are not price-sensitive, and turnover in any given year is low.

What ZIP code is Star Island in? 33139, which it shares with South Beach, South of Fifth, Sunset Harbour and the Venetian Islands. That makes ZIP-level pricing data useless for this island, since it blends South Beach studios with waterfront estates. Judge Star Island on its own comparable sales, not on 33139 medians.

Speak to a Miami advisor about Star Island

Star Island is a relationship market. The properties that matter often trade before they are advertised, and the difference between a good and a bad outcome here is usually access and timing rather than negotiation.

Manhattan Miami works with buyers and owners at the top of the Miami Beach waterfront market, and across the wider Miami luxury market. We can tell you what has come to market, what has traded recently and at what basis, which parcels are quietly approachable, and which seawall, dock and elevation issues are sitting inside a specific estate.

Request a private viewing or a confidential market briefing on Star Island.

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