Casa Malinka

Hibiscus Island, Palm and Star were completed in 1922 and Casa Malinka (then just with the street address) was the first house built on the 3 lots hugging the entire NE corner. Into the 1930s wake of the Florida land boom, The islands became the winter home of such notables as Al Capone and celebrities, who were impressed by the views of the skylines of Downtown Miami and Miami Beach. Palm and Hib

iscus Island became the site of the Famous Latin Quarter Nightclub in the 1940s and 1950s. Owned by Lou Walters, father of journalist Barbara Walters, the Latin Quarter was a mid-century mecca for big-named entertainers who performed for winter crowds of tourists and celebrities arriving in Miami Beach each December. Entertainers like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Tony Bennett all intermingled with waves of high-kicking chorus girls to perform three shows a night at the Latin Quarter. What used to be the pool house and personal tennis club turned into neighbouring houses as the main house remained and was proclamed to be a historical landmark. Barbara Walters inherited this property from her father, built a large fur-coat room, put in pink shaggy carpet throughout and completed it with matching pink curtains, pink ceramic bathroom and gold fixtures. Elevator to the second floor was errected and some rooms were turned into made quaters. Barbara was in a peak of her carreer and didnt have time to bask in the sun; so the property was sold to a then famous writer who named the house "Shangri La" - which means is a symbol for harmonious, happy place. The writer then moved to an even happier place and the house was on the market for several years untill in 2004 the complete makeover began and was completed two and a half years later as CASA MALINKA: the only thing that was preserved is outside shell of the house with a beautiful, well preserved Art Deco columns and elements. The entire inside including 6 bedrooms, fur coat and elevator were expunged. Construction began with an enourmosly long steel beams burrowed into the sea bed to reinforce the basement and intergal structure of the house' frame; hurricane-proof metal roof and hurricane graded folding NaNa doors completed the "bunker" that it is today.