Miami Beach City Commissioners Decide Not to Designate “Real Housewives of Miami” Star Lisa Hochstein's Home as Historic: Report

The reality TV starlet and her husband want to build a new mansion at 42 Star Island Drive

Miami Beach city commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday not to designate “Real Housewife” Lisa Hochstein’s Star Island mansion as a historic home, the Miami Herald reported.

That decision could allow Hochstein, a cast member of “The Real Housewives of Miami,” and her husband Leonard Hochstein to realize their plans to tear down the 89-year-old home, according to the Herald.

The city of Miami Beach has been reviewing the controversial application to demolish the mansion at 42 Star Island Drive. The Hochsteins want to build a new mansion in its place.

In March the Miami Beach Design Review Board approved their plans to build a new mansion. But the Miami Design Preservation League asked Miami Beach’s Historic Preservation Board to save the old one – designed by Miami Beach architect Walter DeGarmo – by making it a “historical landmark.”

While that board said the home should be preserved, both the Planning Board and the city administration recommended against doing that, the Herald reported.

On Wednesday, city commissioners made their decision – and they have the final say in the city, the Herald pointed out.

Kent Harrison Robbins, an attorney for the Miami Design Preservation League, said of the commission’s decision, “This was a vote allowing the demolition of 42 Star Island,” the Herald reported.

However, the mansion can’t be taken down just yet. The preservation group has filed a lawsuit appealing the city’s approval of a new home on the property, and that suit must be decided before the Hochsteins can move forward, the Herald reported.

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