Fisher Island Club

Fisher Island Club is a private club occupying a 216-acre island in Biscayne Bay off Miami, reachable only by ferry -- a fleet of six runs around the clock on a seven-minute crossing -- or by private yacht. The island was created when Miami cut a channel through the barrier island in 1905, traded by Carl Fisher to William K. Vanderbilt II in 1927 for a 265-foot yacht, and developed from the early 1980s; the club opened in 1987 and became an equity club in 1993. A $60m restoration completed in 2013 rebuilt the Vanderbilt Mansion, hotel accommodation, golf course, tennis centre, spa, beach club and marinas. Membership is tied to property: Equity Membership is available to Fisher Island property owners and each membership represents an equity ownership in the club, covering the primary member, spouse and dependent children under 24. Golf privileges are an optional additional annual fee. Facilities include a private beach and beach club, a nine-hole P.B. Dye course, a tennis centre with courts on all four Grand Slam surfaces plus pickleball and padel, two deep-water marinas with over 100 slips, a spa, salon and fitness centre, a kids' club, an aviary, an observatory, a theatre, seven restaurants and 15 club cottages for members' sponsored guests.

How it works

Members live on or own property on the island and use the club's facilities as residents; the island is served by its own public safety officers around the clock, and golf carts are the main mode of transport. Equity members receive preferred dues, snooker club privileges, preferred golf and marina rates, priority reservations for golf, tennis, spa and beach cabanas, and unlimited complimentary tennis. Golf privileges require an optional annual fee, and greens and cart fees still apply. The 15 club cottages, villas and guesthouse suites near the Vanderbilt Mansion are available only to sponsored guests of members. Membership enquiries go to a dedicated membership line and email address.

Typical member

Owners of residences on Fisher Island, drawn from more than 40 countries. The club says roughly 30 per cent of residents live on the island year-round and that residences range from 789 to over 9,500 square feet with prices from $2m to $40m.

Fisher Island Club is a residential club rather than a city club, and that shapes everything about it. The published gate is property ownership on the island, not a proposer, a profession or an achievement test, so the practical entry price is the cost of a residence -- the club itself says $2m to $40m -- before any club fee is considered. What the club does not publish is the club fee: no initiation figure, no dues, no golf-membership price appears anywhere on the site, and no reliable reporting of a figure was located, so treat circulating numbers as unverified. The equity structure, adopted in 1993, means members hold an ownership interest rather than a licence, which matters for how capital costs and any transfer work; the club does not publish those terms either. Note also that the club is not the same body as the Fisher Island Community Association, and that the guest accommodation is genuinely closed -- cottages are available only to sponsored guests of members, not to the public.

Editorial analysis by Peer Group Guide editors. It is separated from the record above and follows the editorial policy.