The Rex Hamilton Corporation

On a coral rock ridge above Sailboat Bay in tropical, beautiful Coconut Grove rests the Residences at The Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove. One of its crown jewels is a beautiful home on the ninth floor which combines two fine apartments into a nearly 4000 square foot residence which looks and feels more like a home than an apartment. This apartment spans both the sunrise and sunset sides of the residential Ritz tower allowing restful spectacular views throughout the day and unparalleled privacy for its lucky occupants. Generous floor space allows all the rooms of the luxury residence to unfold in a logical order while separating the two masters from the guest room(s). The sunrise side is a formal arrangement of very large living room and open dining room with a master beyond while the sunset side of the apartment hosts the guest(s), a cozy game room and comfortable den, plus a wet bar with full kitchen facilities for entertainment. It is possible to easily return the apartment to a 4 bedroom configuration if desired in the future.

Either way you enjoy it, the luxury and reliability of Ritz-Carlton's 24-7 room service awaits when you simply pick up the phone along with your own residential concierge, manager, and private valet entrance. If you don't feel like leaving home tonight, room service will bring up whatever you'd like. On more formal evenings, you can even invite the chef up with notice, to cook for you and your guests at home. The full range of options is particularly wonderful for entertaining friends and family over the holidays.

Real estate is all about location and this home has Location with the capital "L." Beneath you unfolds the scene of Miami's oldest and certainly coolest walking neighborhoods, a green community of artists, boaters, and urbanites looking to either get out of their cars or shorten their commute to the heart of Miami. Popular with people who love walking cities like Paris and New York, Coconut Grove offers much on foot when you venture out. In addition to fine specialty shops, movie theaters and restaurants, you have the best of Miami's private schools minutes away by foot. One of these middle schools tested higher than Andover Academy last year, so there is no trading off convenience for quality at this location. This suburb is also the oldest part of modern Miami as well, hosting the original home of Commodore Monroe, the oldest organized anything in Southeast Florida which is the nearby Biscayne Bay Yacht Club, and historic homes which include the most expensive home ever built off the water in SE Florida with an eye popping $60 million spent its construction. Fresh Market is a short stroll away as well, considered as one of America's finest boutique full service grocery stores. Coconut Grove was a city with a mayor long before Miami was anything but a trading post. It is a place with a heart that likes to party and remembers to celebrate the simple pleasures of life along the water. Our favorite street festivals are here and they include the Coconut Grove Arts Festival (a mega event each winter on the street adjacent your front door), the King Mango Strut Parade (a New Years weekend, politically incorrect parody of all big city parades), the Bed Race down McFarland Road which defies description, the weekly siege of the spandex racing bicyclers, and last but not least the Chowder Party on Columbus day where seemingly sane citizens don black Commodore uniforms and march to music for a bowl of chowder after blasting the canon. Technically the Chowder Party always starts in Grove and no one really knows what island it will end up on. But enough about the Grove, let's discuss the fabulous Ritz-Carlton Hotel connected by a secure lobby to "The Residences."

In our humble opinion and those fussy travel editors across America, Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove knows how to act like a big Manhattan luxury hotel while flawlessly running as a boutique operation. Perhaps that's why AAA awarded it the coveted 5 Diamond Award after only eight months of operation, one of only 2 hotels in Miami to currently earn that achievement. (You can't live above the other winner, Mandarin Miami, but you can go there by car in 10 minutes for dinner!) So at the end of the hallway, you have all of the amenities of a beautiful Ritz-Carlton property including the lobby bar, the Bizcaya Grill -voted one of the world's top 75 restaurants by Conde Naste, and an excellent full service spa. If you tire of the creations of Chef Willis Loughhead after a few thousand meals in Bizcaya, you could always cross the street to Bice, the globally successful Italian restaurant in Cocowalk or walk a few blocks further to the French bistro whose owner received an award this year from the French government for culinary excellent in an atmosphere of casual fun! Needless to say, to be able to rent a room for overflow guests at a moment's notice, keeps you residence your private domain. Our guests sometimes ask about privacy and security if there is a hotel component to the community? Apartment 906 + 907 sits atop "The Residences" which is a private, condo-only tower with both opulent lobby and private motor lobby entrance and valets. You can go to the hotel anytime you'd like, but hotel guests have to go through several levels of security to be announced as your guest. Need we say more?

The master suite enjoys the best views in the Grove with southeast exposures over the waters looking out to Key Biscayne and the bay. The other bedrooms are north facing toward the airport (20 minutes by car to MIA) and the city lights and sophisticated restaurants of Coral Gables (10 minutes by car). This split plan allows a maximum of privacy for the master bedroom within an intelligent floor plan which acknowledges both a sense of casual living and high lifestyle.