Prosper Group and European firm Versluys Group bought a condo development site on the Miami River in Brickell for $50 million.
They put the 1-acre lot under contract last year from Harvey Hernandez’s Newgard Development Group and Two Roads Development. The property was part of the sellers’ One Brickell Riverfront assemblage.
Miami-based Prosper, led by former Wall Street financier Jay Roberts, and Belgium-based Versluys plan a $650 million, 60-story luxury condo tower on the adjacent lots at 66 Southwest Sixth Street, 625 Southwest First Avenue and a third parcel, according to the buyers’ news release. The project will have over 300 feet of riverfrontage.
This was an off-market deal.
The buyers financed the purchase with a $30.5 million loan from Miami-based Vaster.
The project will have 181 condos, the release says, which marks a tweak from their previous plan for 158 units. In October, when the Prosper-Versluys partnership and planned project were revealed, a news release said development will take about 30 months and completion is expected in 2028, with the plan at the time for a branded building.
Roberts declined to confirm whether they’re still eyeing branded residences.
South Florida’s market has become saturated with branded condos, with the region considered the epicenter of this type of development in the Western Hemisphere, with brands entering the residential domain such as Frida Kahlo for a Wynwood project and Elle magazine in Edgewater. It’s put into jeopardy whether demand will suffice to buy out the hefty pipeline and whether all brands will succeed.
Dubai holds the No. 1 spot worldwide for branded condos.
Versluys, led by CEO Bart Versluys and COO Peter De Decker, is making its debut in U.S. development. The firm, which is over a century old, has a legacy of luxury waterfront development in Belgium and the Netherlands.
It’s not the only European developer to make its U.S. debut in South Florida in recent years. Zug, Switzerland-based Empira Group came into the market during the pandemic boom and is developing the 26-story, 310-unit Perrin apartment tower in Brickell.
Empira partnered with Partners Group, also based in Zug, on a planned 70-story Breitling-branded condo tower in Brickell with over 300 units. Partners is the parent company of Breitling.
Miami-based Newgard and Two Roads, which has offices in Miami and West Palm Beach, originally wanted to build a three-tower One Brickell Riverfront development on the lots they sold and an adjacent parcel but eventually nixed plans for a third tower. On the parcel they kept, at 99 Southwest Seventh Street, they are developing the 44-story, 362-unit Lofty Brickell tower and the 46-story, 422-unit Standard Residences.
Construction of both buildings topped off this year, with completion expected in about nine months, Hernandez said.
Two Roads is led by Reid Boren and Taylor Collins.
Brickell and the Miami River have become magnets for luxury developers.
Edgardo Defortuna’s Brickell-based Fortune International Group and Shahab Karmely’s New York-based KAR Properties are partnering with Faena on the 68-story, 440-unit Faena Residences, which will have two towers connected by a roughly 50,000-square-foot bridge with amenities.
Early last year, Prosper and Forte Development proposed an 80-story tower with 250 condos, 48 condo-hotel units and 100 hotel rooms in Brickell at 1040 South Miami Avenue.
Also, Vlad Doronin’s OKO Group and Oak Row Equities, led by Erik Rutter and David Weitz, plan to redevelop a luxury hotel and residences on a 4.25-acre Brickell bayfront site they bought for a record $520 million.
Read more
