Miami Beach’s luxury home market hit rock bottom last summer. It’s back.
We’ve been reporting on deal after deal, at record prices. The latest big one, billionaire Vlad Doronin’s sale of his waterfront Star Island mansion for $120 million, got everyone talking.
The calls I received?
“Do you know who the real buyer is?”
“What brokers were on that deal?”
“I heard it’s not who you reported.”
Michael Ferro, a private equity multimillionaire, is named on the deed as the buyer. But Ferro is friends with Ken Griffin, the billionaire we all know and who owns a lot of land on Star Island. Sources told me that Griffin is the real buyer of Doronin’s property.
Regardless, the trade is indicative of what’s been going on in recent months across Miami Beach’s most exclusive areas: the islands, such as Star, Palm, La Gorce and the Venetians, as well as prominent streets like North Bay Road. (The WSJ reported that the roughly 150 waterfront homes there are collectively worth more than $1.7 billion.)
A handful of agents have said in recent weeks that price adjustments led to the first couple of big deals.
“Each sale set off a chain reaction,” Coldwell Banker’s Danny Hertzberg said.
The first domino to fall was David and Victoria Beckham’s $72 million purchase of 4736 North Bay Road in October. A mansion on Palm Island traded for $45 million in February, less than a year after it sold for $40 million. In March, developer James Curnin sold his waterfront La Gorce Island mansion off-market for $60 million.
“We’re sort of blown away by these numbers, but it’s becoming normal,” Douglas Elliman agent Oliver Lloyd told me. Lloyd represented the buyer, online gaming entrepreneur Richard Skelhorn, in the Palm Island sale.
The market of five or 10 years ago is gone. The buyers are much wealthier than before, and many are big names. They’re looking for off-market deals, in part because they require privacy and also because a lot of the most desired homes have been purchased already.
Todd Glaser is among the developers looking to raise the price ceiling even higher — think more than double the price of Doronin’s trade. He’s in contract to acquire developer Sonny Kahn’s 2.3-acre site on North Bay Road for $105 million.
Glaser’s preference will be to redevelop the waterfront lot into a spec mansion that could hit the market for $300 million, he said. (This is up from the previously reported planned price of $250 million.)
“People are starting to really get comfortable with that $100 million-plus sale,” he said.
What we’re thinking about: I wrote about the allegations surrounding Marcy Javor, an agent in Boca Raton, as well as the state’s investigation into complaints filed against her. Do you have a similar story? Send me a note at kk@therealdeal.com.
Special thanks to Kate Hinsche for writing the rest of this newsletter!
CLOSING TIME
Residential: Billionaire media mogul Ric Elias sold his oceanfront Palm Beach mansion for $73 million in an off-market deal. The nearly 12,900-square-foot mansion was built in 2018 and spans eight bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, four half-bathrooms and a pool. Douglas Elliman’s Jack Rooney represented both sides of the deal.
Commercial: Acadia Realty Trust paid $68 million for Pinewood Square, a shopping center at 6330 Lantana Road in Lake Worth Beach. The seller is a joint venture between Woolbright Development and Principal Asset Management.
NEW TO THE MARKET
WeatherTech founder David MacNeil listed an 11,700-square-foot mansion at 84 Isla Bahia Drive in Fort Lauderdale for $45 million. Built in 2020 on half an acre with 300 feet of waterfront, the home has five bedrooms, eight bathrooms, four fireplaces and six wet bars, the listing shows. It’s on the market with Amy Carpenter of DuPont Registry Realty. MacNeil sold an oceanfront Fort Lauderdale mansion for $40 million in 2023, and bought an oceanfront Manalapan estate for $38.5 million last year.
A thing we’ve learned
Jack McMullen, childhood friend of TRD’s Kate Hinsche, made his Opening Day debut as the Miami Marlins lead radio announcer this week, calling the play-by-play for the team’s first win of the season against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Elsewhere in Florida
- Related Ross chairman Steve Ross is teaming up with eMerge Americas and the Florida Council of 100 on an initiative to make South Florida an “innovation hub,” South Florida Business Journal reports. Ross is boosting the region, specifically West Palm Beach as the “Silicon Valley” of tomorrow, and is building office towers and wooing over institutions like Vanderbilt University and the Cleveland Clinic to bring his vision to life.
- Parents of the Parkland school shooting victims are condemning a bill that would lower the minimum age for purchasing a firearm in Florida to 18, from 21. The Florida House passed the bill, and it likely has Gov. Ron DeSantis’ support, according to CBS News.
- Lawmakers in Tallahassee are gearing up for a battle over tax cuts, Axios reports. Gov. Ron DeSantis has proposed eliminating property taxes statewide and House Speaker Daniel Perez has pitched slashing the sales tax as well. The State Senate isn’t likely to support both cuts, according to Axios.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
