- December 4, 2025
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As if this house isn’t notable enough — it has the best location in town, the best view, the highest price tag — it has another claim to fame. It was the setting of one of Sarasota’s most riveting social dramas. For a while it was a “Real Housewives” episode come to life, complete with fights, feuds, scandals and a seeming endless supply of money. It was utterly trivial yet had the whole town fascinated.
This was the home of Mack and Charlotte Vick. They moved here in 1992 from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he was a urologist and she worked at a law firm. In some sort of licensing lottery, she won the right to buy a cell phone tower. That led to another tower, then another, and that was the beginning of their fortune.
And fortune it was. The home they built in 1996, on Westway Drive in Lido Shores, had every possible superlative. It was the crown jewel on the most prestigious street in town. It boasted the best stretch of beach and a view that managed to include the Gulf, New Pass and the beaches and high-rises of Longboat. The scale was imperial, with grand staircases, giant skylights, vast terraces and an infinity pool.
The home sits on almost two acres of land and at the end of a longish drive. Its style suggests the Vicks’ Louisiana background — there’s more than a hint of French New Orleans in its symmetrical façade, complete with pillars and balconies.
Was their home specifically built for entertaining? It’s hard to say, but it fulfilled that function beautifully. The highlight was the roof terrace, four floors up, with its trademark black and white tile floor. It even had its own kitchenette and bath. Parties would usually start out here, to catch the remarkable sunsets. There were multiple options for dinner. It might be downstairs on the terrace, or if it was small group, in the formal dining room with its pillars and tray ceiling. Underneath, on the bottom level, there was another elaborate terrace where there might be dancing, complete with disco lights.
The home’s living room was a vast space, opening onto a large terrace overlooking the Gulf. There was a fireplace on one side and a bar on the other, complete with a glass enclosed wine room. The impressive kitchen had two of everything. There were several offices, including one with a roll-down wall, a new interpretation of a roll-down desk. But the home’s real stunner was the primary suite, vast in size, with its own terrace, a marble bathroom the size of a small home — it’s over 30 feet long — an exercise room and extra spacious closets. There were five other bedrooms, each with an ensuite bath. Most opened to terraces of their own.
One of the most notable things about the Vicks was how well they looked the part. She was tall, beautiful, incredibly trim from all that tennis she played. He was even taller, with a full head of spiky grey hair and a chiseled face. They raised the town’s glamour quotient by several hundred degrees. They were not just rich; they were beautiful and rich.
The Vicks became part of the social clique of millionaires who lived on Westway Drive at the time, and soon they — or at least Charlotte — moved on to conquer the rest of the town. She began hosting large parties for the Asolo, then became even more important to them as a fundraiser. She dreamt up the then-famous Asolo cruises, whereby the theater’s supporters would all take a luxury cruise together. They were very successful until a trivial dispute over who, the Vicks or another couple, would get the best suite erupted into a full-scale feud.
But the real turning point came with the famous article in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Subscribers opened their paper one Sunday morning to see Charlotte, reclining on a chaise in her living room, surrounded by 10 or 12 people. This was her team, she proudly acknowledges, those who make her glamorous life possible. You see her masseuse, tennis instructor, dermatologist, the general manager of Saks, the party planner from Michael’s On East.
What was meant as a lighthearted take on how Sarasota’s rich live became something else. People took offense. Letters came into the editor, decrying the tone-deaf attitude of the Vicks, and it became a pre-cancel culture version of what has since become commonplace. The Vick magic vanished. One widely quoted letter stated that they were the reason things like the French revolution happened. It was an unhappy moment the couple never recovered from and, in 2002, they put the house on the market. They first moved to Colorado, leaving the beach for the mountains. Later reports have put them back in Baton Rouge, running a med-spa specializing in Botox and cool-sculpting and then retiring in Alabama.
The couple who bought the house from the Vicks — for $13 million — still own it. They have kept a low profile over the years, using it for occasional family vacations. It has remained basically the same; the most interesting addition has been a bunk room for visiting grandchildren. Now the owners have decided to move on and are listing the home for $20 million, one of the highest priced homes in Sarasota.
It’s impossible to say what the future holds for such a spectacular beachfront estate. It is widely rumored that Steven Tyler has been to see the house more than once. He was accompanied by bandmate Joe Perry, who has a place on Longboat Key. Or maybe he was accompanied by Lenny Kravitz. (It all depends on which rumor you listen to.)
At any rate, Mr. Tyler’s interest validates this extraordinary piece of property. It really is a rock star of a house. It’s got privacy, a dramatic setting, every luxury — and even a dramatic backstory of bittersweet Sarasota history.
