Article from Sarasota Magazine
Dubbed “La Serenissima”—Italian for “super serene”—this opulent Italianate home’s $35 million price tag makes it Sarasota and Manatee county’s priciest listing to date.
At the southern tip of Longboat Key, just past the banyan-shaded driveways and behind the private gates of the Longboat Key Club, sits a house so opulent it has a title. La Serenissima, Italian for “super serene,” sounds less like a place you live and more like a title bestowed by papal decree. But its owners just call it home.
They, at least for now, are Jim and Laura Rogers. Jim, 74, is a retired Fortune 500 CEO, a former Navy pilot-turned-financier-turned grandfather-in-chief. He bought the Gulf-front estate in 2020 with Laura, a CPA who once worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and United Technologies. Both previously had careers on Wall Street, too.
“We both worked for JP Morgan,” Jim says. “We were in Palm Beach, Miami and Naples on business and never gave Sarasota much thought.” But when they finally ventured here, he says, “We thought, jeez, there are islands, and it seems to have some stuff going on.”
What they found—and ultimately bought—was something closer to a Venetian palace than a Florida beach house. Designed by architect Clifford Scholz and completed in 2005, the nearly 20,000-square-foot estate occupies 1.18 acres of Gulf-front land and has the scale and finish of an embassy or small museum.
“It blew us away,” Jim says of the home. “When we saw it, we knew. You don’t find this just anywhere.”
With looks like these, the home is no stranger to the real estate catwalk. “An English couple in the neighborhood walked by who said they watched it get built. The daughter worked at JP Morgan, coincidentally,” Jim recalls. “I said, ‘Come in.’ And there you go. I love showing it off.”
The couple bought La Serenissima for $16.5 million in 2020, making it the top sale in the county’s history at the time. Before that, it made headlines in 2017 when it went on the market for $26.5 million. Now listed at $35 million, it’s beating this Harbor Acres home—originally listed for more than $33 million and sold for $20 million—for the title of priciest local listing ever.
Beyond the sky-high price, the most common reaction visitors have, according to Jim, is “Wow.”
One doesn’t so much walk through La Serenissima as proceed through it. Visitors are greeted by a 38-foot marble atrium crowned by a 16-foot glass dome, the kind of architectural flourish more common to a Renaissance basilica than a beach house. There are three stories, six bedrooms, six full baths and two half-baths, and three elevators—including one shaped like a gilded birdcage that rises into a cupola with a glass skylight.
“When you look up, you see the sky,” Jim says. “People just stop and stare.”
The grand salon has 18-foot coffered ceilings and enough room to entertain a hundred guests.
But for all its Italianate exuberance—hand-painted murals, etched glass and imported stone—the home is also efficient. “We keep it cool,” Jim says. “The windows are filmed. It’s mostly concrete and steel and actually holds temperature well.” As for concerns about being on the waterfront following a brutal hurricane season, Jim says La Serenissima had no damage whatsoever, other than the landscaping “taking a beating.”
Originally built by previous owners Michele and Mike McKee, La Serenissima was constructed over five years, with help from local artisans for its custom millwork, finishes and glasswork. Since buying it, the Rogers have added a spa to the pool, which they also had refinished, automated much of the interior, replaced carpets with marble and updated the landscaping—all of which, Jim estimates, cost roughly seven figures.
There’s also a home theater with 10 seats, a gourmet kitchen, a sunroom, his-and-hers bedroom suites, and an ice cream parlor overlooking the Gulf. “Friends and family say we’re nuts to sell,” he says. “But we want more time with our daughters and grandkids. And honestly? This house deserves someone who’ll be here most of the year.”
Raised in Chesapeake, Virginia, and once stationed in Jacksonville as a Navy pilot, Jim never imagined retirement would include a beachfront palace with space for 12 cars. After leaving the military, he spent a year unemployed—“Vietnam ended and every pilot was looking for work,” he says—before attending Wharton and eventually becoming CEO of Eastman Chemical. His wife Laura, originally from Niagara Falls, shared the finance-world hustle. Both are active philanthropists, and Jim says his wife often has “two screens going,” even in retirement. “She’s part lawyer, treasurer, CPA—you name it,” he says. After all, he admits, she’s the one who knows what the air conditioning bill for that much house is.
While they’ve lived in various homes, like a 1930s Art Deco condo in Virginia, La Serenissima was something entirely different. “It’s the most beautiful home I’ve ever been in, outside of Buckingham Palace,” Jim says. “I don’t think anyone would ever build it again. Too much artistry.”
Indeed, it’s hard to imagine anyone these days green-lighting this kind of estate. But Jim speaks with affection for the house—not just its extravagance, but also what it gave them. “Thanks to Sarasota, Longboat Key and this home, these last five years have been a fairy tale,” he says.
The couple still wants to maintain a presence in the area. “Maybe a smaller condo,” Jim says. “I love Longboat and Sarasota. Just not the three-story palace anymore.”
So La Serenissima awaits its next steward—someone with a fondness for the Renaissance and for a grand entrance.
“A very unique buyer is going to fall in love with this house,” says realtor Rich Polese, who helped bring the Rogers to town.
Jim, for his part, just hopes the new buyer is the type who won’t rush the tour. “People go room to room like it’s a treasure hunt,” he says. “You don’t guide them. They go where the murals lead.”
