UPDATED, May 3, 4:30 p.m.: Developer Gil Dezer has sold a unit at Porsche Design Tower for $6.25 million, months after he bought the unit back at auction for $4.1 million. That marks a hefty profit of more than 50 percent.
Dezer first sold unit 3605 at 18555 Collins Avenue in Sunny Isles Beach in a preconstruction sale for $6.7 million to AD Royale, a company controlled by Dariusz Robert Wojdyga, a wealthy Polish investor, and his wife Agnieszka Gasior, in March 2017.
Porsche Design Tower unit 3605 (Credit: Dezer Development)
Months later, the couple listed the unit for $8.9 million, only to sell it at auction to Dezer for $4.1 million in October.
Dezer said he didn’t want “just any guy” buying a condo in the 132-unit, 60-story tower – famous for its “Dezervator” car elevator.
“I, as a developer, stand by my product,” he said. “I got a hell of a deal and was able to still protect the value in the building.”
With the buyer’s premium, Dezer paid about $4.5 million to close on the condo in October. The sellers had spent about $1 million building out the three-bedroom, 4,794-square-foot unit with Interiors by Steven G, a designer kitchen with Miele appliances and motorized cabinets, a master bathroom with a stone spa bath and Dornbracht fixtures.
Porsche Design Tower unit 3605 (Credit: Dezer Development)
“I don’t understand why anybody would go to auction like that. I guess he kind of needed the cash,” he said.
The new owner of the condo is a family member of a well-known celebrity, the developer said, declining to identify the buyer. The sale has not yet cleared property records.
One unit got past Dezer. In January, unit 4203 at the luxury Sunny Isles Beach tower sold for $3.15 million, or only $800 per foot. The sale happened “overnight.” Otherwise, Dezer said, he would have bought it.
Owners at Porsche Design include Mexican billionaire Carlos Peralta Quintero, Colorado Rockies player Carlos “CarGo” Gonzalez, Russian businessman Igor Yakovlev, and Terry Taylor, the president of a major car dealership, who paid $25 million, or $2,615 per square foot, for a four-story penthouse at the tower. Dezer Development completed the building in November 2016 and celebrated its opening with a private party that featured a performance from Alicia Keys.
About five developer units are left to sell, but Dezer is holding onto them until prices come back up. “I wait to get my price,” he said.
In addition to some sites Dezer Development is land-banking in Sunny Isles and North Miami Beach, the firm is co-developing Residences by Armani/Casa with the Related Group and Rockpoint Group, and plans to deliver the luxury condo project later this year.
Correction: An earlier version of this story included an incorrect sales price.