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Inside the Iconic Versace Mansion

Kim Kardashian checked into the opulent 1116 Ocean Drive property, now re-opened after a year’s hiatus, to celebrate her newest store. Here’s your first look inside

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Before dismissing the photos of Kim Kardashian waving like a royal from the balcony of the Versace mansion yesterday, consider the palatial digs. The socialite is in town for the opening of Dash, the newest boutique by the sisters Kardashian, and is one of the first guests to stay at the extravagant estate-turned-hotel since it opened this month.

After a year’s absence while the mansion was on the market, events guru and restaurateur Barton G. Weiss has returned to the Ocean Drive home where designer Gianni Versace lived and died in 1997. When New York’s Nakash family (owners of Jordache Enterprises) acquired the property, known as Casa Casuarina, for $41.5 million last fall, Weiss and his team were hired back to operate a new restaurant, the Mediterranean-inspired Il Sole, and a boutique hotel, The Villa By Barton G., on the premises.

“We are very happy to be back,” Weiss tells DuJour, “and thrilled to be moving forward with a wonderful partner who also has a great appreciation of the property and its history.” The new Villa By Barton G. is offering up 10 luxurious suites, one of which is the former bedroom of Gianni Versace. “We were very respectful not to re-create,” says Weiss when asked what the design process what like, “but to update and preserve.”

Room rates start at $795, which—all things considered—is a paltry price to pay for a night here. “Any small boutique environment is quite intimate,” as Weiss knows, “but our guests will be treated as though they are in their own private residence, not a hotel at all.”

Click on the gallery above to see inside the Versace mansion.

 

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