Money in Motion: The woman who sold her home to Ken Griffin for $106.875 Million?

Adrienne Arsht, the prominent Miami philanthropist and attorney, sold her 4-acre Coconut Grove estate, which she called Indian Springs for $106.9 million, a record price in Miami-Dade County for a residential sale. 

The buyer is hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin, who has purchased hundreds of millions of dollars worth of trophy real estate in Florida over the past few years. Mr. Griffin recently announced that his company Citadel was relocating from Chicago to Miami. 

“As the steward of this beautiful property, I am proud to leave its legacy to the next generations of caretakers,” Ms. Arsht said in a statement. “May they also enjoy the breathtaking view!”

Ms. Arsht plans to donate the proceeds of the sale to charity.

Arsht called her former primary home Indian Spring. Built in 1999, Indian Spring covers nearly 13,000 square feet and has five bedrooms and five bathrooms. Jose A. Gelabert-Navia, former dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture, designed the two-story mansion. The compound has a tennis court, a pool perched on a bluff and a guest house with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a gym above a six-car garage. The estate includes a separate 5,200-square-foot, three-bedroom historic residence, Villa Serena. That house, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms includes a guest house on top of a three-car garage. U.S. Secretary of State and three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan commissioned August Geiger, one of the most prominent American architects, to design and build the two-story home in 1913.

Arsht restored the house and worked with preservationists to help place Villa Serena on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

In typical Wealth Detector Style, we wanted to know, who exactly IS Adrienne Arsht?

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Adrienne Arsht: The Life of an American Businesswoman and Philanthropist

Adrienne Arsht was born in 1942 to parents prominent in the legal field. Though her parent’s life may have seemed privileged to many, Adrienne recalls their journey as an American dream story.

Her mother, Roxana Cannon Arsht, and father, Samuel Arsht, were both children of poor Russian Jewish immigrants that came to Delaware. Samuel’s parents worked as a wallpaper hanger and a homemaker while Roxana’s parents owned a dry-goods store and a corset shop, yet their journey was just beginning.

As they both progressed through their life, Adrienne’s parents continued to achieve the dream. They eventually prospered in real estate and then both attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Samuel became an influential corporate lawyer and Roxana was named as Delaware’s first female judge. As a symbol of their gratitude, they gave several million dollars to education and to medical entities. In 2003, when Roxana died, their $22 million estate was donated to the Arsht Cannon Fund, which, under Adrienne’s influence, focused on the state’s Hispanic community. The success of Samuel and Roxana had a profound impact on Adrienne’s life, including the importance of education, philanthropy, and what is possible in America.

Adrienne, inspired by her parents, went to Mount Holyoke College for her bachelor’s degree and then attended the Villanova University School of Law for her J.D. She became the 11th woman admitted to the Delaware bar, her mother was the fifth. Adrienne then became the first female lawyer in her father’s law firm. As her career progressed, affirmative action took her to work for Trans World Airlines (TWA), in Manhattan. She recalls it being an interesting time, as a woman at that time was either a stewardess or in the legal department. She was the latter; reviewing contracts that were negotiated by men. Adrienne recalled a conversation when she was not invited to lunch by her male counterparts, “We may have to work with you, but we don’t have to eat with you.” The mentality at TWA throughout her 10 years did not keep her from thriving in her career. She moved from being one of a handful of women in the legal division to being the first woman in its property, cargo, and government relations department. Yet, this was only the start.

In February 1979, Arsht met Mike Feldman while in Washington on airline business. He was a Capitol Hill and White House insider and a founding partner of the powerhouse law firm Ginsburg, Feldman, Weil and Bress. Additionally, he was successful in radio stations, banks, and Washington real estate. Though he was 28 years her senior, Arsht found him smart, witty, and desirable. In a whirlwind romance, Adrienne moved in with Feldman the following day. She believed that because he was already established, he wouldn’t interfere with her blossoming career. The following year, in 1980, a rabbi married them before 200 guests at the once-restricted Greenville Country Club. The wedding was of high visibility being that three of Feldman’s eight groomsmen were U.S. senators and his son, the best man, was a Supreme Court litigator and Washington National Opera president. 

The newlyweds lived in Washington at the Colonnade in Wesley Heights, a building Feldman and his partners had converted to condos. Continuing to progress in her career, Adrienne started a title company to handle his closings. 

In 1990, the couple moved to Potomac. Because going out started to be difficult for her husband, Arsht built a large addition onto their home so that they could have musicians and parties at their residence. This was the start of Adrienne’s love of planning lavish events, which soon included urban slumber parties for 15 or 16 power women, ice cream and life updates which was attended by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and lingerie magnate Josie Natori. Also enhancing her professional world, Arsht invested in women-owned firms, she joined the Committee of 200, where top women business owners and corporate officers networked, and became active in the performing arts.

After 16 years of marriage, in 1996, Arsht moved to Florida to run TotalBank, a chain they had owned for 10 years. Though this decision put them in separate locations, Adrienne recalls her thoughts on the decision. “We knew it really needed to be managed by someone in the family and our marriage worked because Mike was comfortable with the fact that I needed to live my own life and he was supportive even though he missed me.” There was speculation that the marriage was in trouble; however, they were both adamant that the arrangement worked very well. Unfortunately, her husband passed away at age 92.

Following his death, Arsht continued to plan events in Miami. They threw dinners for 50 or 60 guests to promote the bank and held frequent breakfasts. She also created a corporate symbol, a frog. She stated to the women that she mentored was that “you have to kiss a lot of frogs – not in a romantic way, but in a business way.” 

The business and financial circle in Miami was macho and difficult to break into. However, W. Hodding Carter III, a former Carter administration official who ran the Knight Foundation, recalled that Adrienne was very candid. He stated, “The average male authority figure actually quivered when she came into the room, because they were absolutely incapable of dealing with a pushy woman who acted like a ‘man’ when it came to business.” Alberto Ibarguen, responsible for the Miami-based Knight Foundation also recalled, “She came in like someone who belonged, and belonged in a full-throated way, and that is always a style that is bothersome to the establishment. Yet, she was terrific on many levels. In a place as new and changing as Miami, I think it shouldn’t surprise anyone that she did threaten people and she wasn’t particularly delicate about it.”

Arsht had no desire to be delicate. She was a fixture on the after-hours circuit and was opposed to the notion that male bank presidents were called “business executives'' and she was called a “socialite.” Adrienne worked hard to be seen as a competent and worthy professional, alongside her male counterparts, however the disparity in gender roles continued. Though Arsht had been treasurer and secretary of the influential Beacon Council, Miami-Dade County’s public-private economic development agency, Adrienne was not chosen as Chair. The South Florida CEO reported, in 2004, that the council was “apparently concerned that she would shake things up too much,” and the position went to a man. Her response was, “Until they get that first woman, everybody has been snubbed.” Though Arsht put up a strong face, former Health and Human Services secretary, Donna Shalala, a friend, and president of the University of Miami said, “She’s just not as tough as people think she is. She is much more sensitive about what others think.” 

Adrienne kept moving forward; keeping the immigrant success story within her mind and expanded TotalBank from four to 14 branches, with assets of $1.4 billion, after buying two other banks. By late 2007, she had $200 million from the sale to Spanish Banco Popular Español and a new title: Chairman Emerita, TotalBank. She became the first woman to join the Million Dollar Roundtable of United Way of Miami-Date County and in Washington, D.C., she served on the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She also served as the Executive Vice Chairman of the Atlantic Council, and was a former Vice Chairman member of the board of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Additionally, she is a member of the National Advisory Board of the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy and Blair House Restoration Fund and a member of the Fine Arts Committee of the U.S. State Department, the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a former President of the Vice President’s Residence Foundation.

Born from two parents that started from humble beginnings but embraced the American dream, Adrienne was a success story in her own right. She was educated, an individual that pursued gender equality within the workplace, and broke barriers within a male-centered industry, Arsht also had her own dream story and contributed heavily to the organizations, both personally and professionally which had influenced her. She has taken a leading role promoting artistic, business, and civic growth in the three cities she calls home: Washington, D.C., Miami, and New York.

Additionally, Arsht’s philanthropy efforts were vast. She made a $30 million contribution to Miami-Date County’s Performing Arts Center, which was renamed the Adrienne Arsht Center. The Chronicle of Philanthropy ranked Arsht number 39 on its 2008 America’s 50 biggest donors list. This contribution secured its financial footing. She also committed more than $6 million to the University of Miami to support the university-wide Arsht Ethics Programs and to assist the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami, among other initiatives. Arsht also endowed the Adrienne Arsht Latin American Center at the Atlantic Council to focus on the role of South America in the trans-Atlantic world and co-founded the program, “Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative,” which provided planning assistance and consulting services to struggling arts organizations throughout the United States and donated $5 million to establish the Adrienne Arsht Musical Theater Fund at the Kennedy Center to support a wide variety of musical theater productions. She also contributed $10 million to the Lincoln Center and was recognized with the dedication of the Adrienne Arsht Stage in Alice Tully Hall.

Arsht’s business and wide-spread philanthropic endeavors were ever-apparent throughout her lifetime. Following in her parent’s footsteps, her mark will be carried on within the United States for many generations to come.