VM South Beach bought the Versace mansion for $41.5 million. Photo Credit The Associated Press.

Just more than two decades after Italian designer Gianni Versace turned a three-story home into a Miami Beach icon, the oceanfront property has a new owner.

According to a recent report from The Associated Press, VM South Beach LLC, a company partly owned by Jordache Enterprises Chairman Joe Nakash, outbid its only competition – Donald Trump and Wellington developer Glenn Straub – and secured the home for $41.5 million.

Although the 23,000-square-foot mansion is currently called Casa Casuarina, many people still refer to it as the Versace mansion, named after the famed designer who bought the 11-bathroom, 10-bedroom home in 1992 and devoted $33 million to renovations. Serial killer Andrew Cunanan shot and killed Versace outside the home in 1997. Nevertheless, some people find the luxurious mansion to be alluring, and its new owners hope to benefit from that attraction.

VM South Beach plans to convert the property, located on Ocean Drive, into a hotel. Ultimately, the company will combine the new hotel with the neighboring Hotel Victor, which Jordache Enterprises owns along with four other hotels in the area.

Nakash told the AP he plans to leave the mansion virtually untouched, making sure to showcase the 24-karat gold tiles one can see shimmering from the pool floor, and leaving in place the Medusa heads that Versace imported. Furthermore, with permission from the family, VM South Beach wishes to use the Versace name as a marketing tactic for the hotel.

In 2000, the Versace family ceased ownership of the property. A bankruptcy court placed Fisher Auction Company in charge of the auction process. Lamar Fisher, president and CEO of the company, told the AP the bidding started at $25.5 million.

The report said the mansion was available for purchase for $125 million in 2012, but by June 2013 the price slid to $75 million.