A private chapel is easy to reduce to one more extravagant amenity. At 8901 Arvida Lane, it explains the estate more clearly than the cinema, wine room, billiards room, pool, guest villa, or waterfront gym. The custom woodwork and stained glass turn a deeply personal ritual into permanent architecture. Everything around it expands the same idea: this is a compound designed to keep nearly every part of life inside its gates.

$148 millionCurrent asking price
2.38 acresGables Estates site
245 feetDeep-water frontage
Palm-lined drive approaching the pale stucco façade of 8901 Arvida Lane
The palm-lined arrival drive opens onto the main façade. Official listing photography via ONE Sotheby’s International Realty.

The chapel makes the estate specific

The listing identifies a chapel with custom millwork and stained glass among the principal rooms. Dennis Carvajal, the ONE Sotheby’s agent representing the property, told Homes.com News that the owners dedicated it to prayer and meditation.[1][2]

That intention matters. Unlike the estate’s conventional leisure spaces, the chapel records a specific devotional purpose. Its scale is modest beside the entertaining rooms, but its colored glass, dark timber, and axial layout give the mansion an interior center that no price comparison can provide.

Private chapel at 8901 Arvida Lane with dark timber pews, stained glass, and an arched ceiling
The private chapel uses dark timber, stained glass, and a narrow processional plan that is distinct from the estate’s pale entertaining rooms. Official listing photography via ONE Sotheby’s International Realty.

Portuondo used volume instead of ornament alone

Rafael Portuondo designed the residence, completed in 2007 according to current reporting. The exterior relies on pale stucco, red tile, arcades, balconies, and deep garden shadows. Inside, groin-vaulted passages lead toward a double-height salon with a coffered ceiling. The listing gives the principal volume a height of 25 feet and places formal dining, family space, two offices, a theater, and a billiards room on the main level.[1][2][3]

The published area figures require care. The official MLS structure lists 12,490 square feet of living area, while the brokerage description says more than 14,000 square feet. Homes.com News describes 16,198 square feet under roof. Those figures represent different measurement categories, so presenting any one of them as the single definitive size would create false precision.[1][2]

Double-height salon at 8901 Arvida Lane with arches, chandeliers, and tall glazed doors
The double-height salon concentrates the interior vocabulary: coffered ceiling, arched openings, marble floor, and full-height glazing toward the grounds. Official listing photography via ONE Sotheby’s International Realty.
Formal dining room at 8901 Arvida Lane with arched glass doors and a long table
The dining room opens through repeated arches and sits beside a temperature-controlled wine room, according to the listing. Official listing photography via ONE Sotheby’s International Realty.

A botanical collection becomes the privacy system

The listing claims more than 600 species of palms, trees, and plants across the 2.38-acre site. The number is remarkable, but the photographs show why it belongs in the architectural story. Planting thickens around drives and side elevations, softens the long white façades, and separates the main residence from the guest villa without making the compound feel divided.[1]

The guest residence has its own living room, dining room, kitchen, and en-suite bedroom, then reconnects to the main structure through a covered loggia. It can function independently while remaining part of the same sheltered garden sequence. The primary suite above takes the opposite approach: sitting room, balcony, wet bar, two dressing rooms, and an onyx-lined bath gather private functions into one extended apartment.[1]

Dense tropical gardens surrounding an arched loggia at 8901 Arvida Lane
Tropical planting provides more than scenery; it screens paths, terraces, and secondary structures across the compound. Official listing photography via ONE Sotheby’s International Realty.
Primary bedroom at 8901 Arvida Lane with a vaulted ceiling and garden-facing windows
The primary suite combines a vaulted sleeping room with a sitting area, balcony, wet bar, paired dressing rooms, and an onyx spa bath. Official listing photography via ONE Sotheby’s International Realty.

The lagoon is the final room

The property occupies the end of a Gables Estates lagoon, where the listing measures 245 feet of deep-water frontage. An approximately 90-foot dock reaches water with no fixed bridges between the estate and Biscayne Bay. For a yacht owner, that is not a decorative waterfront statistic. It changes what can arrive at the property and how directly the estate connects to the bay.[1]

The outdoor program follows the same self-contained logic as the interior. A mosaic pool and marble terrace sit behind the principal façade. A detached waterfront fitness pavilion adds a bath, upper sun deck, and hot tub. From above, the mansion, pool, guest structures, gardens, dock, and lagoon read as one private domain rather than a residence with amenities appended around it.[1]

Aerial view of 8901 Arvida Lane showing the mansion, pool, gardens, and lagoon edge
The aerial view reveals how the formal pool axis meets dense grounds and the broader lagoon site. Official listing photography via ONE Sotheby’s International Realty.
Aerial waterfront view of 8901 Arvida Lane at the head of a Coral Gables lagoon
At the head of the lagoon, 8901 Arvida Lane combines a broad water outlook with direct, bridge-free access toward Biscayne Bay. Official listing photography via ONE Sotheby’s International Realty.

What $148 million is asking a buyer to value

The $148 million figure is an asking price, not a completed transaction or an independent appraisal. The more useful question is what the seller has assembled behind it: a Portuondo-designed waterfront compound, mature botanical collection, guest residence, direct yacht access, major entertaining rooms, private fitness pavilion, and a purpose-built chapel tied to the owners’ devotional practice.

The listing is vast enough to compete on acreage, water, square footage, and price. The chapel makes it memorable.

Sources and further reading

  1. ONE Sotheby’s International Realty — current 8901 Arvida Lane listing, MLS A12097051
  2. Homes.com News — waterfront estate, chapel, botanical grounds, and area figures
  3. Rafael Portuondo Architect — Arvida Lane project page

Mansion Concierge is not affiliated with the seller, listing brokerage, architect, or property owner. Listing details and asking price can change.