Star Island is a neighborhood in the city of

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which sep ...

on a man-made island in Biscayne Bay, Florida, United States. The island is south of the Venetian Islands and just east of Palm and Hibiscus islands.

Background

The name “Star Island” is thought to have originated from the fact that many of the homes on the island were once owned by famous celebrities and high-profile individuals, giving the island a “star-studded” reputation. Completed in 1922 by the Army Corps of Engineers by dredging sand, the land was initially owned by developer

Carl Fisher Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community * Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of te ...

, who purchased several land parcels of what would become the city of Miami Beach. It is accessible by land and barrier islands via the MacArthur Causeway. According to Bloomberg L.P. it is the most expensive neighbourhood in the USA.

Education

Students from Star Island are served by the following schools of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools: * South Pointe Elementary School *

Nautilus Middle School The Miami-Dade County Public Schools district has 58 middle schools. This page shows first a list of names and then a more descriptive list of some middle schools. Simple list of middle schools in the district These middle schools serve grades 6 ...

* Miami Beach High School

Celebrity residents

Celebrities who own or have owned homes on the island include Edward Howland Robinson Green,

Enrique Iglesias Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (; (born 8 May 1975) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He started his recording career in the mid-1990s on the Mexican indie label Fonovisa and became the bestselling Spanish-language act of the decade. By the ...

, Sean Combs, Emilio and

Gloria Estefan Gloria Estefan (; born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García; born 1 September 1957) is a Cuban-American singer, actress, and businesswoman. Estefan is a seven-time Grammy Award winner, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and has been ...

, Don Johnson, Rosie O'Donnell, Xuxa,

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), known commonly as "Shaq" ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. O'Neal is regarded as one of the greates ...

, and

Phillip Frost Phillip FrostBusinessweek 2011 (born c. 1936) is an American entrepreneur. Early life and education Frost was born into an observant Jewish family in the United States. He has two elder brothers, who are 15 and 16 years older than him respecti ...

. Tour guides and realtors have made false claims of some other celebrities having homes on Star Island, such as LeBron James,

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...

Jennifer Lopez Jennifer Lynn Affleck (' Lopez; born July 24, 1969), also known as J.Lo, is an American singer, actress and dancer. In 1991, she began appearing as a Fly Girl dancer on the sketch comedy television series ''In Living Color'', where she rema ...

, Julio Iglesias,

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Enzio Stallone (; born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, ) is an American actor and filmmaker. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, h ...

and

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

. Rosie O’Donnell’s Star Island house (purchased in 1999) was the subject of a 1979 trial in which prosecutors alleged that it was being used by members of the

Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church is a movement born in Jamaica in the 1950s by disciples of Marcus Garvey and was incorporated in Florida in 1975. It first established its organization in the United States in Star Island, Florida with a commune of ...

to run a

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

smuggling ring. Some scenes from the 1994 movie '' The Specialist'' were filmed there.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Star Island (Miami Beach) Islands of Miami Beach, Florida Neighborhoods in Miami Beach, Florida Gated communities in Florida