A Gateway to Limitless Luxury

April 14, 2006 -- -- Casa Casuarina is one of the most famous houses in America and one of the most photographed in Miami's South Beach. It was a playground for the rich and famous. Elton John, Madonna and Sting hung out by the mosaic-tiled pool.

And then, on July 15, 1997, its owner, the flamboyant fashion icon Gianni Versace, was murdered on its front steps. Overnight it became a shrine where tourists lined up to take pictures. Almost nine years later, the morbid fascination with the property continues.

After sitting idle since the murder, the mansion has been reopened as a private club. Membership costs $50,000. The 10-suite hotel boasts the highest room prices in all of Florida.

The Safari Suite costs a jaw-dropping $4,000 a night. The bed is not just fit for a king -- it could fit the entire royal family. Versace's very own suite goes for the same price -- complete with fluffy clouds painted on the ceiling and a serenading fiddle player on the wall.

Peter Loftin is the new owner. He picked up the mansion for a mere $19 million -- a bargain, given that Versace spent $32 million restoring the place in the 1990s.

Loftin chose not to change Versace's elaborate décor and trademark rococo touches.

"He was a genius and he created this. There's only one of these, and there's never going to be another one," Loftin told "Nightline."

Loftin is betting that big money will be drawn to his exclusive, extravagant oasis. And he has scaled up prices accordingly. Even a cup of coffee costs $50. But this is no ordinary coffee. The beans have been digested by an Indonesian cat, then deposited on the jungle floor and then laboriously transported to the mansion's spectacular doorway.

And there's the spa: It offers what's called a massage-à-trois for $1,000. Around South Beach they like to say, "What happens on the beach stays on the beach." Here they say, "What Happens in the Casa never happened."

Except for what happened to Gianni Versace here in 1997.