You could call it a timely deal. The family that founded and sold Swiss Watch International purchased a waterfront mansion on Allison Island in Miami Beach.
The buyers picked up the property within 24 hours, according to their agent, who declined to identify them.
Shlomi and Lior Ben-Shmuel paid $14.5 million for the eight-bedroom, 9,615-square-foot home at 6640 Allison Road, sources told The Real Deal. The seller is real estate investor Bruce Fish of Waterview Management, property records show.
The Ben-Shmuels’ company was acquired by California-based Clearlake Capital Group in 2012. It shut down in 2017, according to the South Florida Business Journal.
The two-story Allison Island house was built in 1992. Sources said the Ben-Shmuels plan to renovate the property, which was purchased as an investment.
Kevin Brill of KMB Broker represented the seller in the off-market deal. Joel Lusky of Douglas Elliman brought the buyer.
Brill said that the lot’s location offers a view that does not exist elsewhere on the island.
Lusky said it marked the first time the home was available.
Waterfront home sales have been on the rise in Miami Beach for months. Brill added that once the deal was in contract, he was getting additional offers “left and right.”
Alison Island is just off Miami Beach, near La Gorce Island.
In March, Canadian businessman Simon Librati sold a waterfront house on Allison Island for $8.2 million. The previous month, Linda Lambert, the widow of Eastdil Secured’s founder Ben Lambert, paid $13 million for a spec home on the island.