Ari Pearl, founder and CEO of PPG Development; Jonathan Leifer, Director, L3C Capital Partners; The Altair, 9540 West Bay Harbor Drive (The Port of Altair Bay, L3C Capital Partners, PPG Development, iStock)
Developers Ari Pearl and Jonathan Leifer have sold more than half the units of their converted Bay Harbor Islands condo hotel for about $21.4 million, or about $389,000 per key.
Pearl’s PPG Development and Leifer, chairman and founder of L3C Capital Partners, acquired the waterfront property for $30 million in December. Last month, they converted the 96-key hotel into a condo hotel. The former Tryp by Wyndham Miami Bay Harbor hotel at 9540 West Bay Harbor Drive is now the Altair.
The Shapiro Group handles unit sales. The Bay Harbor Islands condo hotel features a rooftop pool, restaurant and gym. Highgate manages the property.
In the largest recent transaction, PPG Bay Harbor Owner LLC sold 45 units to LC Altair and its affiliates for nearly $16 million, according to property records. The buyer is led by Yitzi Karasick of New Jersey-based Liquid Capital. He financed the purchase with two loans totaling $10.4 million from American National Bank.
These units sold for an average price of $1,053 per square foot, or approximately $354,000 per unit.
In the second-biggest deal, PPG sold nine units for about $5 million to PD Altair LLC, records show. These units sold for an average price of $848 per square foot, or nearly $564,000 per unit. The buyer is linked to Ari Hoch, vice president of New York-based Park Drive Equities.
Pearl’s PPG also sold an additional unit to CGFL1 LLC for $350,000. This entity is headed by Jacob Gofman, according to the records.
The hotel had been closed since the sale of the property just before the end of last year. The seven-story building was completed in 2018. Pearl previously said he and Leifer were looking for “prime distressed assets” in South Florida and bought the hotel for “well below the replacement cost”.
The seller at the time was Bay Village Condos LLC.
“We’ve repositioned it into an upscale condo hotel, and we just opened this month,” Pearl said.
Preconstruction sales were strong in new developments on the Bay Harbor Islands, according to developers and brokers. In March, Ambienta Developers launched the sale of a planned 30-unit building at 9901 West Bay Harbor Drive, and the project is now at least 75% pre-sold. Ugo Colombo and Valerio Morabito began selling Onda, a 41-unit, eight-story development at 1135 103rd Street in Bay Harbor Islands, at the same time, and it’s about 50% pre-sold.
Ian Bruce Eichner recently kicked off sales of La Baia, Bay Harbor Islands, the first of two buildings he plans in the city, with prices starting at $810,000.