The Marvelous Homes of the Miami Heat
This season marks the seventh time the Miami Heat have won the NBA’s Eastern Conference. Familiar faces in the NBA Playoffs, the Heat are led by superstar Jimmy Butler, who has taken his game to new heights and brought the team along with him.
Butler’s always been talented, but his sometimes-abrasive personality has kept his bags packed. The man now known as Playoff Jimmy has bounced around the NBA in search of a home. He’s finally found kindred spirits in the Sunshine State, but establishing a true home of his own in Miami has proven to be a bit of a process.
And his Heat teammates are experiencing some difficulty cracking the code to defeat Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and the rest of the Denver Nuggets.
Perhaps they can get some tips from the man upstairs: well-decorated team president, Pat Riley. The former head coach is said to have taken a more hands-off approach in recent seasons, but any nuggets of wisdom from a man who coached five championship-winning NBA teams would likely be welcome.
His property strategy off the court? Buy and hold in one of the nation’s most expensive markets. It’s proven to be a successful method for him so far. Let’s take a peek at the real estate the Heat’s real estate! We’ll start at the top.
Pat Riley
Heat prez Pat Riley has an unparalleled NBA resume. A champion as a player, a five-time winning coach, and a two-time winning team executive, he has enough rings for both hands. The basketball Hall of Famer is also the owner of prestigious properties on both coasts.
Charmingly, he still owns the two-bedroom, Malibu house he purchased back in 1989 for $1.6 million during his storied run as Los Angeles Lakers head coach. And the former coach obviously fell in love with his private, gated neighborhood overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Riley’s game plan included the purchase of two neighboring homes over the decades—a three-bedroom home in 2000 for $2.5 million and a second three-bedroom property next door in 2007 for $7 million.
It’s unclear if Riley has linked the trio of homes to create a massive compound. One morsel of evidence suggests they’ve remained separate: In 2013, the initial Malibu home he purchased went on the luxury rental market for $18,500 a month.
The three properties are auspiciously situated in one of the country’s most expensive real estate markets. So just what are home values like in this neighborhood? Well, a four-bedroom house just down the street from Riley’s is currently on the market for $12.5 million.
As for a dwelling in the Sunshine State, Riley has a luxe condo in the Apogee building at the very tip of South Beach. Riley bought his top-floor, four-bedroom unit for $11,750,000 in 2008, at the conclusion of his coaching career.
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Erik Spoelstra
Tapped by Riley to coach the Heat in 2008, the unheralded Erik Spoelstra stepped into a high-pressure situation and has remained in place—in a league where firings are all too familiar. He weathered the initial storm of the LeBron James era in Miami and wound up with two championship rings.
Now back in the title fight for the sixth time as a coach, Spoelstra is the league’s second-longest-tenured head coach.
He has a stylish, six-bedroom Coral Gables, FL, home that he bought for $4,395,000 in February 2017. The home, described as a “boater’s paradise,” landed on the market in June 2015 for $5,490,000. It was offered as a luxury rental for $22,500 a month before Spoelstra scooped it up. Sitting right on a waterway connected to the Atlantic Ocean, it’s outfitted with a media room, private in-law residence, boathouse, and dock.
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Jimmy Butler
Heat franchise player Jimmy Butler has led this Miami squad into the finals. A stellar performer who shines brightest when the intensity is ratcheted up, Butler’s brand of braggadocio and talent has earned him that Playoff Jimmy moniker. The six-time All-Star has been a perfect match for the all-out brand of basketball that has become the Heat’s specialty.
Also known as Jimmy Buckets, the talented forward bounced through Chicago, Minnesota, and Philadelphia before landing in Miami.
As a well-traveled (and well-compensated) superstar, Butler has remained busy juggling properties from coast to coast. In the off-season, he makes his home in sunny Poway, CA, just outside San Diego. In 2020, he purchased a 15,844-square-foot mansion from former baseball All-Star, Matt Kemp.
A 2015 article places Butler in the same home as a renter enjoying the Southern California lifestyle. He liked the mansion well enough to eventually purchase it—and score a serious discount in the process. Kemp originally listed the home for $11.5 million in 2016, before ultimately selling it to an LLC linked to Butler, for less than half that price.
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And while he left the Bulls behind in 2017, Butler still has an affinity for the Windy City. He owns a two-bedroom condo in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. He purchased the place for $1.2 million in 2018. Located in The Ronsley building, Butler was said to enjoy the property’s exposed brick, high ceilings, and privacy.
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Following his trade to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Butler did part with a stately Chicago mansion—also in the River North neighborhood. The 10,000-square-foot brick residence, with three outdoor spaces, went on the market in July 2017 for $5 million. It sold in November 2017 for $4.2 million.
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Although he only played a single season in Philly, Butler stayed in style. He rented a six-bedroom mansion in Ambler, PA, known as Camp Woods Estate. In August 2020, the home “offered fully furnished with luxurious modern furnishings” landed on the market for $6 million and sold couple of months later for $4.1 million.
(Realtor.com)
Butler’s activity in Florida has been fascinating to follow, as well. After signing a lucrative four-year, $184 million contract with the Heat in August 2021, he sold a home he had purchased in Miami two years prior for $4.5 million. He also managed to score a sweet profit, selling the seven-bedroom mansion for $7.11 million.
A few months later in January 2022, Butler bought a six-bedroom mansion in South Miami for $7.45 million. In a gated community of just 12 homes, the place looked like the perfect spot to settle down for a while. But Butler had other ideas. The home sold just five months later for $7.5 million. Since that sale, we haven’t been able to pin down where Butler stays as he leads the Heat on their championship quest.
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Kevin Love
After joining the Heat in February, the veteran Love has provided a much-needed interior presence in some crucial moments off the bench. He’s been here before, having won the 2016 title with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was let go by the Cavs earlier this season, so he hasn’t had time to address the sale of his Cleveland home.
Purchased in 2015 for $1.3 million, the five-bedroom abode sits in a gated community in the Bratenahl area. Just a few blocks from Lake Erie, the home will likely wind up on the market this summer—unless Love truly loves staying in Cleveland while his career takes him elsewhere.
But who needs Cleveland when an off-season home awaits in NYC? According to a 2020 article, Love and his wife own a place in Tribeca at 70 Vestry.
The building designed by Robert A.M. Stern sits right along the Hudson River waterfront and offers residents a “complete lifestyle package” with a range of high-end amenities, including a concierge, an 82-foot indoor pool, and entertaining spaces.
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While in Miami, Love appears to have set up shop in a luxury condo in Coconut Grove. The three-bedroom unit in the One Park Grove building had been on the market as a rental with a price tag of $42,000 a month.
Bam Adebayo
Fellow Heat forward Bam Adebayo also appreciates high-rise life and, like Love, seems to be a renter, too. Though Adebayo has been with the Heat since debuting as a rookie back in 2017, we were unable to find any evidence that he’s bought a place of his own.
Adebayo is in the middle of a five-year, $163 million contract extension; and while he might still be a renter, we’re a bit skeptical.
That aside, it appears as if he stays in a high-floor unit in the 50 Biscayne building in downtown Miami. About a 10-minute walk from the Heat’s arena, the unit was being offered for rent in 2017 for $3,000 a month. We’re guessing the rate has risen over the past six years, but so has Adebayo’s status.
Udonis Haslem
While it seems like Spoelstra has been coaching the Heat forever, one player on the roster actually predates his arrival. Udonis Haslem made his Heat debut in 2003 and has been a part of three championship squads in Miami. Serving more of a mentor role over the past seven seasons, Haslem keeps his spot on the roster thanks to the respect he’s earned with Heat management.
While this is his last season in uniform, he’ll likely transition into an advisory or coaching role with the only team he’s ever known. As a result, he’ll probably hang on to the five-bedroom home in Southwest Ranches that he purchased for $3.2 million back in 2007. Described as a “French Country-style” estate, the residence sits on nearly three acres in this suburb popular with professional athletes.
Tyler Herro
Herro has been on the injured list during the Heat’s playoff run, but that means more time for the stylish guard to work on rehabbing his hand in his Pinecrest mansion. He purchased the eight-bedroom home at the tail end of 2022 for $10.5 million—a price that set a local record.
Listed in August 2022 for $11,850,000, the spec home was built in 2021 and marketed as “The Crown Jewel of Pinecrest.” The 9,505-square-foot pad offers a tropical, modern, and vaguely Balinese vibe and comes with gorgeous landscaping, water features, and sleek interior spaces.
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Kyle Lowry
Well-traveled point guard Kyle Lowry is gunning for his second ring, having won in 2019 with the Toronto Raptors. In his second season with the Heat, Lowry might be renting. We found him connected to a high-end home in Coral Gables, FL, that was purchased in 2021 for $17.4 million, but we’re not completely sure that it’s his.
He was also mentioned as one of the Heat players who choose to stay steps away from the arena at The Elser Hotel and Residences in downtown Miami. The upscale building is equipped with the sorts of amenities players seek out—a pool area with private lounges, coworking spaces, and a yoga lawn.
We’re not 100% sure of where Lowry stays in the Sunshine State, but we do know the Philly native owns a four-floor mansion in Wayne, PA, that he purchased for $2.6 million in 2015. The English-inspired manor was built in 1932 but was fully renovated and modernized in 2009.
(Realtor.com)
Randy White ([email protected]) contributed to this report.
