Eddie Irvine, a former Formula One race car driver turned spec developer, sold a waterfront teardown in Surfside for $7.9 million.
Records show an entity managed by Irvine sold a home on 88th Street to a trust managed by Paul Warshaw. Linkedin shows Warshaw is COO of North Miami Beach-based Bottom Line Concepts, a business consulting firm.
Julian Johnston of the Corcoran Group had the listing, and Joyce Gato of Douglas Elliman brought the buyer.
Irvine is a retired F1 driver. Originally from Northern Ireland, he raced from 1993 to 2002, finishing as runner-up in the 1999 World Drivers’ Championship. Irvine now develops luxury spec properties in South Florida.
He bought the Surfside property for $5.7 million in 2021, records show. Built in 1956, the home spans 2,200 square feet, with four bedrooms, four bathrooms and one half-bathroom, records show. According to the listing, the property also includes a pool, spa, and 75 feet of waterfront with a dock.
Irvine originally planned to build a spec home on the property, but after receiving some off-market offers, he decided to sell, according to Johnston. Johnston said Irvine completed a “light, cosmetic” renovation of the property to rent it out while applying for project permits.
“We wanted to rent it out and get cash flow for a year,” he said. Johnston confirmed the buyer plans to demolish the property.
Johnston is Irvine’s longtime broker, and has handled several of the retired racer’s sales in recent years. They include the sale of a Hibiscus Island spec mansion in Miami Beach for $27.8 million in 2019, the purchase of another Hibiscus Island property for $10.5 million in 2021, and the sale of a Venetian Islands waterfront home in Miami Beach in 2021 for $17.1 million.
According to Johnston, Irvine has already found a new development site on Hibiscus Island to replace this project. He declined to disclose the address because the deal has not yet closed.
Last year, Robert B. Cohen, a grandson of the founder of Hudson News with the same name, paid $12.9 million for a waterfront home on Biscaya Island in Surfside, setting a price record for single-family homes in Surfside.