An 8-meter foyer, a 148 m² suite and now the house next door: Messi spends $18.8 million and doubles his waterfront 'block' in Florida

Lionel Messi has decided the best neighbor is himself. The star bought, for about $8 million, the house right next to the mansion he shares with Antonela Roccuzzo and their sons in Bay Colony, a gated community with 24-hour private security in Fort Lauderdale, near Inter Miami. The deal went through Sadani LLC, a company run by Spanish banker Alfonso Nebot Armisen, who handles part of the Argentine's finances, as first reported by The Real Deal and detailed by La Nación and Ámbito.

The main house, at 91 Compass Lane, was bought in September 2023 for about $10.7 million, a few months after he joined Inter Miami. Built in 1988, it has 974 m² of living space on a 1,765 m² lot, 50 meters of waterfront on a cul-de-sac, eight suites (two of them VIP), nine and a half bathrooms, a 148 m² primary suite, an Italian kitchen, a gym with spa, an entertainment room, an office, a vaulted 8-meter-high entry, a pool and two docks. The interiors are by designer Lori Morris.

The new purchase, built in the 1970s, has about 715 m² of living space, a pool, a private dock and nearly 50 meters of waterfront; former owners Michael and Michelle Nelson paid $2.7 million in 2013 and sold for almost triple. Together, the two homes exceed 1,680 m² of built space and about 100 linear meters of shoreline, a total investment of roughly $18.8 million. There is no public information yet on whether the family will renovate, demolish or merge the two lots.