July 2005

VIP Guide Miami: Casa Capponi

One Of Miami 's Most Prolific Personalities Found A Place To Hang His Hats

By Brandon Dane

Dark woods and chandeliered ceilings in the Sunset Island home of 33-year-old club owner/promoter-turned-real-estate-developer Michael Capponi exude a quaint arrogance-much like the man.

Well-groomed and soft-spoken, Capponi doesn't look at people, he looks through them: strength, weakness, success or failure. He sees it and judges by it. This trait has, of course, made him one of the most successful club promoters and owners on South Beach , which has now segued into real estate development. "You can't have one without the other," Capponi said.

Indeed, his relationship with J. Wallace Tutt III, interior designer of the Versace mansion, and Gregg Covin of Gregg Covin Real Estate Development, has caused quite a stir with the renovation of The Angler's Hotel in the 600 block of Washington Avenue on South Beach , soon to be The Angler's Boutique Resort residences.

"The hotel/condo thing is a pretty cool movement," Capponi said. When asked if he intended to open an intertwining chain of boutique resort condos as Shore Club and former Studio 54 owner Ian Schrager had intended to do, he shot a look of disdain. "Don't you know that deal fell through?" he asked. "But, yes, I'm taking it one step at a time."

And one step at a time seems to be how Capponi has to take things nowadays after a few years of enduring what he called "dark experiences" -no doubt linked to his involvement with nightclub owner and bad boy Chris Paciello and the South Beach venue Bar Room. But he's kept in the action with B.E.D., Prive and Mansion.

Capponi came to the United States from Belgium in 1978 and has lived here since then. His parents divorced when he was ten years old, the same year he began working in one of their restaurants. His involvement in Miami 's real estate market is the direct result of feeling that he "missed out the first time" and he doesn't intend to make the same mistake. "When I was 20 years old, I was living in a house that is worth $10 million today," he said with a pained expression. "I had the option to buy for like $75,000." At the time, however, he said he could not raise the required capital or else he would have bought that house.

"In the mid-'80s nobody wanted any of this property," he said. "[And now] people have a perception that the real estate market is going to crash any day. I think it will continue to rise." Capponi opined that "top banks" would never allow the real estate market to crash in Miami .

The meticulous nature by which Capponi does real estate deals is very much like the way he has designed his home. "At the end of the day," he said. "If you don't build from scratch, then you are [missing something]. That's the way to go for me." He gutted the entire structure and supervised, along with contractor Uribe Construction "around the clock."

"We closed in February [2005] and started construction the next day," he explained. "I was lucky because I had a good contractor who had people there every day and on time." That was the easy part of dealing with the 5,300-square-foot home, which formerly looked like something out of "Miami Vice." The space used to have custom carpets with designs in red and black, low ceilings, and glass brick walls complemented by windows with turquoise and purple valences. Today the house is reminiscent of a plantation in the West Indies , with rustic pieces complimented by a wash of natural light.

"I have a certain style." Capponi said. "Monotone, classic, but still modern. You have to adapt to your tastes and adapt to your needs. I handpicked every single thing. I'll go to 25 antique stores to find the right piece. [The house] is like a Mr. Potato Head."

As he walked through his home, Capponi commented on how he raised the ceilings, expanded the kitchen and enlarged the bedrooms. In the only space befitting, a Venetian glass chandelier hangs in the entryway high over a marble tiled floor. "That's the only thing I inherited from my entire family," he said as we peered above us at the multi-tiered, mocha-colored fixture. "That's not something you can find in Miami ."

He continued the tour through his formal dining area and cozy home theater, which had a bookshelf cradling titles such as "Capone" and "On Aggression." It seemed that he had visitors coming out of every portal: his girlfriend, his goddaughter, a business friend and a woman whom he said he had "just met this weekend."

Standing in the middle of his open living room, he pointed to his artwork: two Dalis hanging in the front room, a Romero Britto caricature of him up the spiral staircase just outside his study, and a multitude of paintings and images of angels carry throughout the home.

Occasionally the tour was interrupted with phone calls. Capponi's conversations were dotted with mentions of Paris [Hilton, obviously] and Page Six. What else would one expect from a man whose neighbors include Lenny Kravitz and Anna Kournikova and who has been in the nightclub business for almost 15 years?

Onward to the study, which connects to his large bedroom and overlooks the water. As his girlfriend, Erin Henry, exited the room, Capponi confessed: "She says I'm the 'queer eye' in the relationship." The Michele Pommier model concurred, stating that she simply agreed with whatever he wanted to do regarding the interior design. Capponi said he went about collecting items that spoke to him, regardless of the price tag they carried.

When asked what his house was worth, Capponi balked, then responded, "I'll tell you but you can't print it." For the record, however, he volunteered that houses in the Sunset Island neighborhood sell for an average of a little less than $3 million. "I stretched myself to buy this house," Capponi explained. "But I figured I might as well buy it now before the price goes up."

As we exited, Capponi wrapped up the tour by offering a grand gesture: "Call me," he said. "I'll take you out." The thought of hitting the clubs in Miami with one of the most well-known promoters is appealing, but the option of staying in with his beautiful waterfront pool, steamy hot tub, beautiful lady friends and well-appointed home theater seems equally as attractive.