The $60 Million Penthouse Issue

A 13,000-square foot furnished apartment at Estates at Acqualina will soon be listed for sale at $65 million.

The three-story unit on Sunny Isles Beach is nicknamed “Casa di Coba,” after the family who agreed to purchase it pre-construction in 2018 and is now seeking to re-sell it ahead of closing on the deal.

The offering is a slimmed-down version of their $85 million listing that came to market last year.

A piece of that original listing — an unattached guest apartment on the third floor — is now in contract to sell off separately, for $6 million, according to Michael Goldstein, president of sales for Acqualina’s developer, the Trump Group (no relation to Donald Trump).

The remaining condo, a three-story expanse with a pool, four-car garage, millions worth of furniture and custom touches like 3-D crystal detailing on the wall, will be listed for $65 million. The apartment is still undergoing about $13 million of internal construction as it’s being customized to the sellers’ original plan, Goldstein said. The home will be listed when the work is near complete.

The sellers —Joshua Coba, co-founder the hair-removal salon chain European Wax Center, and his wife Jenni — told the Wall Street Journal last year that they prefer to remain on Fisher Island, where they’ve been living through the pandemic while their Sunny Isles condo was under construction.

They’re among many other buyers at Estates at Acqualina who purchased a pre-construction unit before the pandemic, only to realize that the wealth migration to South Florida since then has significantly increased the value of their property.

There are currently over $300 million worth of re-sales among the two towers that comprise the Estates at Acqualina, said Goldstein, whose team is marketing them. Many of those re-sale listings are for units owned by sellers who have yet to close on their newly built property but wish to re-assign their sales contract to another buyer— at a premium.

“A lot of these people, when they bought, until the time that they close, you know, things change in five years,” Goldstein said. “And then when people see the value of what they paid, and where the numbers are now, they say, “You know what? Let’s sell.”

Of the units listed for re-sale where the original sale price is known, some are seeking markups of more than double what the owner paid, according to data compiled by Miller Samuel. Other sellers are seeking premiums of about 89% over their pre-pandemic purchase price.

“It’s a pretty significant sense of optimism in a short window,” Miller said. “Certainly something higher than what they purchased it for is not out of the question.”

Another such listing that came to market last month: Casa di Oro, a single-family-style condo at the base of one tower with: 11,605 square feet, a four-car garage with an elevator, and a 2,300-square foot terrace (with pool and waterfall) for entertaining, just steps away from the beach. The property, delivered furnished by Luxury Living Group, is being marketed for $27 million.

Those sellers have not yet closed on their property so what they paid for the place is unknown.

The for-sale luxury units come with access to the development’s amenities that include a movie theater, a bowling alley, a Formula One simulator and a fleet of Rolls-Royce for local shuttling of residents.

This $60 Million Miami Penthouse Will be Ready in 2027

Luxury shoppers looking to spend near record sums on a Miami condo have another option to consider:

An under-construction tower in Miami’s financial district — the Residences at 1428 Brickell — just priced its penthouse for sale this week at $60 million.

Right now, it’s the promise of a penthouse. The building won’t be complete until 2027.

But here’s what the 12,000-square foot, two-story condo will include when it’s done: seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, 30-foot high ceilings, a private elevator and a spiral staircase connecting the two floors.

Miami skyline views are a given, according to renderings by the project’s Miami-based developer, Ytech. But Fort Lauderdale’s horizon may be visible too.

And of course, a $60 million apartment has flourishes that require a dictionary to decipher: “Silk georgette marble, eucalyptus wood claddings, mineral lime-based finishes, fluted glass walls, spaghetti stone touches and ash flooring,” according to a company statement. All of it was curated by the development team on its “global expeditions.”

Sales at the tower began in October 2022, and not all the units are as far out of reach. Prices for non-penthouse residences range from $2 million to $7 million. That price span covers two-to-four bedroom units of between 1,800 to 4,000 square feet.

Real estate publication The Real Deal held its annual South Florida Forum this week in Miami. It was a convention center filled with investors, developers, brokers (lots from New York) and other stakeholders in South Florida’s ongoing property boom.

There was shop talk, of course, about ultra-luxury condos (take your pick), still-rising prices, and big bets on office construction to accommodate firms new to the region.

Quote of the Week:

See full article in The Real Deal here.

Gotta See it: Headlines from the Week

• 🐊 Florida crocodiles have homing instincts. A study that tracked 17 crocodiles with GPS found they can navigate home from 95 miles away (Sun Sentinel)

• 💰 Jeff Bezos’ move from Seattle to Miami could mean $32 billion in tax savings (The Messenger)

• 📉 WeWork, which filed for bankruptcy this week, is keeping all its Miami office spaces open. “Miami is one of WeWork's top markets in the country,” the firm said. (South Florida Business Journal)

• 🏌️‍♂️Tiger Woods-backed mini-golf course opens in Palm Beach County (Palm Beach Post)

A Correction From Last’s Week’s Issue:

Last week I incorrectly reported the number of cafes that New York bakery Maman is seeking to open in Florida. They aim to open 10 Florida stores in the coming years, not 20.

See corrected story here.

That’s it for today!

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