The 6,500-square-foot British West Indies-style home at 9235 Marsh Island Drive offers gracious island living in an up-and-coming community for $2,250,000.
“It was built as a fully decorated and furnished spec home and the developer spared no expense with the finishes,” says Treasure Coast Sotheby’s co-owner Michael Thorpe, who listed the home three months ago.
“There is a lot of custom millwork, travertine marble floors on the first level and beautiful hardwood floors on the second level. They took great pains in designing and detailing the kitchen. It is about as high-end as you can get.”
Indeed, the kitchen is a highlight of the house. The most striking feature is a huge center island with counter seating, a vegetable sink and cupboards and appliance beneath, including Sub-zero refrigerated drawers. The 5-foot by 10-foot countertop is made from a single slab of marble. The backsplash on the perimeter counters is stylish subway tile and a number of cabinets have decorative glass fronts. Appliances include a Sub-Zero side-by-side refrigerator-freezer with cabinet panel doors, a Miele microwave oven and espresso maker, a Wolf 4-burner gas range and oven, pull-out trash bins and storage racks and a large walk-in pantry with built-in oak shelves.
The kitchen is fully open to the home’s elegant living room. Between them, the two rooms make a primary public space 56-long and 18-feet wide.
The living room features triple crown molding, a marble fireplace with custom wooden mantel, and three sets of west-facing French doors that open onto the spacious back veranda, which overlooks the lap pool and Indian River Lagoon.
Approaching the home for the first time, a visitor drives into a motor court with the two-car attached garage on the left and a golf-cart garage with slide-up door on the left.
Straight ahead is the covered front porch supported by four square wooden columns with a matching balcony above. With balconies picket railing and the open decorative eaves on the roof above the balcony, the front façade presents a striking West-Indies Plantation appearance that looks great in the midst of the lush, tropical landscaping.
Three steps lead up onto the front porch and an arched mahogany door with matching glass sidelights leads into the traditional foyer. To the left of the foyer is a large den, which opens via another door into the master suite. Straight ahead, beyond a transverse hallway that connects the home’s two side wings, is the living room with the lagoon visible through the back French doors.
To the right is the 14-foot by 16-foot formal dining room, which features elaborate millwork and one of many picturesque ceiling fans with woven rattan-like, leaf-shaped blades found throughout the house that enhance the island ambiance.
Beyond the dining room is a butler’s pantry with wet bar and then a service hallway. The service hall accesses a powder room, a laundry room with granite counters, storage closets, pantries, the two-car garage and the stairs that lead up to the guest suite above the garage.
“The guest suite has the same high-end finishes as the rest of the house,” Thorpe says. “There is a bedroom, full bath, wet bar and living room with balcony. It would be perfect for older teenagers, a mother-in-law, or live-in help. It has its own outside entrance and is really quite spacious.”
The master suite on the opposite side of the house from the service wing has its own rotunda-like foyer, two lavish bathrooms, two large walk-in closets and a 18-foot by 18-foot bedroom with adjacent 10-foot by 12-foot sitting area with wet bar and kitchenette. The bedroom enjoys lovely river views and has French doors that lead out onto the pool patio.
The home’s second floor features a large family room, 18-feet by 24-feet, with French doors that open onto the covered rear veranda overlooking the lagoon. There is also an exercise room, a computer room and two en suite bedrooms that have full baths and French doors that open onto the front balcony.
Marsh Island has 32 home sites and is about a third built out with 11 homes. Thorpe says the community is enjoying something of a renaissance after languishing during the downturn. There have been several recent sales, including one for $3.2 million.
“In addition, we have offers on a couple of home sites,” Thorpe says. “I think we will see new homes being built here in the next twelve months, which will really go a long way in bolstering confidence in the community.”
Prices for homes and lots on Marsh Island are considerably lower now than during the height of the boom, when riverfront lots went for as much $1.7 million.
Today, the community enjoys some exceptional amenities in the form of a magnificent clubhouse and a delightful little harbor with a fulltime harbormaster and a range of boating services.
Designed by the renowned architectural firm of Ferguson & Shamamian, which has created notable homes from Malibu to Manhattan, and whose work has been featured more than two dozen time in Architectural Digest, the clubhouse is a masterpiece of Key West-style Caribbean design.
Encircled by a 15-foot deep veranda, the central room has a soaring beamed ceiling and can be opened on all sides to balmy river breezes, incorporating the veranda into a flowing social space. The stunning room draws residents from Windsor, Orchid Island and other nearby communities who covet it for weddings and receptions.
Ferguson & Shamamian also established the community’s architectural standards, putting in place demanding benchmarks of quality and style that are evident in the charming homes along the harbor and the house Thorpe is offering for sale.
Built in 2003, the bulk-headed harbor has 32 slips and can accommodate 65-foot boats. The harbormaster says it is “extremely sheltered, a perfect hurricane hole.”
It has 6-foot-deep water at low tide, four-point mooring, concrete pilings and a state of the art electronic security system that includes video monitoring.
Deep-hulled boats have easy access to the Atlantic Ocean via the Sebastian inlet and to Vero Beach, Sebastian and other towns up and down the Indian River via the Intracoastal Waterway.
The purchase price for 9235 Marsh Island Drive, which is co-listed by Thorpe and his partner Kimberly Hardin Thorpe, includes a slip in the marina.
