(Bloomberg) — A roughly 13,000-square-foot, full-floor penthouse and roof at the Rosewood Residences, a 17-story condo tower designed by Peter Marino in Miami’s South Beach, could soon be the most expensive in Miami Beach’s history. It’s priced at “over $150 million,” according to project developer Michael Shvo. It is expected to be completed by 2026.
The new condo tower will be part of a three-acre hotel, restaurant and luxury campus filled with amenities on 18th Street and Collins Avenue. It will be located in a compound whose best-known building, the art deco Raleigh Hotel, has been a Miami Beach landmark since it was built in the 1940s. The hotels and residences will be operated by the luxury Rosewood Hotels & Resorts brand.
“If I told you that at 220 Central Park South they’re selling a unit at $13,000 a square foot, or at the Aman New York that we sold units at that price, nobody [would think] that was outrageous,” Shvo says in his Manhattan conference room. “We are by far the premier product building, not only in Miami Beach but in the country. And there’s no reason that people will pay less to be 100 feet from the ocean than they do to be 100 feet from Central Park.”
The condominium’s 40 units will include three-bedroom residences that start at $10 million. Pricing for larger apartments hasn’t been disclosed; nor have prices for the building’s cheapest units, which are two-bedroom homes starting at 2,176 square feet.
Insurance costs also remain a question in Florida. A number of condominium owners and associations in south Florida have said recently that they have been priced out of property insurance or have been unable to find coverage, although at least one new reciprocal insurer plans to begin offering policies next year.
Still, interest in the high-end Raleigh project “is coming from everywhere,” Shvo said.
On paper, asking nine figures for an apartment might seem a stretch in Miami-Dade County. The sole, roughly comparable transaction (by value) occurred last year when a four-acre compound with two mansions in Coconut Grove sold for a record-breaking $107 million. Still, appraiser Jonathan Miller says that in some respects, Shvo’s condos represent the logical conclusion of a trend that began before Covid-19 appeared. “We’re seeing prices in Miami drifting towards New York levels for luxury real estate,” he says. “It makes sense [that developers] would bring in product like the one that’s sold in New York—and attempt similar pricing.”
The Backstory
In 2019, Shvo, in partnership with Deutsche Finance Group, purchased the Raleigh Hotel from an investment group led by the designer Tommy Hilfiger. Soon after, Shvo says he got a call from the mayor of Miami Beach, who asked that the Raleigh, a Miami icon, remain a hotel. “He said, ‘This is the most important hotel we have on the beach, so if there’s any way you could do it, it would be great,’” the developer recalls. Shvo pivoted his strategy to purchase two adjacent properties, the Richmond Hotel and the South Seas Hotel, with the aim of turning the entire three-acre site into a master development combining hotels and condominiums. Shvo and his partners paid $243 million for all three properties, according to reporting by the Real Deal. The Raleigh will remain a hotel; the Richmond’s facade will remain, but behind it five new Rosewood Hotel villas will be built; and the South Seas will be turned into a restaurant.
Next, Shvo hired architect Peter Marino to come up with a plan for the site. In addition to restoring and renovating the original buildings (reducing the number of hotel rooms on the property from some 320 suites to 60 suites, according to Shvo), Marino designed the hyper-luxury condominium building that will sit just 100 feet from the water. Next, Shvo brought in Rosewood Hotels and Resorts to manage the property. The entire project is christened the Raleigh, a Rosewood Hotel and Residences Miami Beach.
“It’s an unusual opportunity,” Marino says during an interview. “Michael had negotiated with the city, saying, ‘Look I’ll buy all three hotels, I’ll fix them up, but you have to give me permission to build the condo behind them to get the money back.”
The Building
Because the city gave Shvo permission to build so close to the water, Marino says residents will have unobstructed views to the north and south—and over the water. The design, he continues, will be “a very simple aesthetic: white with thin black lines—super classic.”
The Rosewood Residences’ design offers a purposeful contrast, Marino says, to what he perceives as most new Miami architecture. “Everybody down there is like, “I know, I’ll build a condo that looks like a boat,” he says, possibly referring to the Aston Martin Residences that are meant to resemble a ship’s sail. “But this is Miami, not DisneyLand, last time I checked.” The competition, he adds, “is very Las Vegas-y, if I may say, where they’re looking for a theme. My theme is about quiet elegance and letting the wonderful art deco hotels sing.”
The building’s five-bedroom apartments will cover as much as 7,810 square feet. Its largest penthouse—the one with a price surpassing $150 million—will cover the top floor and occupy the entire roof; it will have its own private rooftop pool, outdoor kitchen and rooftop garden for a total of 16,750 square feet of exterior space. The floors directly below it have also been dubbed “penthouses” by the developer; four such apartments will have from four to seven bedrooms.
The estate will contain an additional four pools: The historic Raleigh hotel pool will be accessed by hotel guests and residents, and a pair of sunrise and sunset pools will be accessible only to residents. In addition, a private pool will be part of what will be known as the Raleigh Beach Club, a new, two-story building overlooking the beach and designed by Marino in the style of architect Oscar Niemeyer. (Each pool will have private cabanas.)
What’s Inside
At minimum, apartments will have 10-foot ceilings, something Marino says was not negotiable. “I won’t take a commission if I won’t get a 10-foot-clear ceiling,” he says. “That’s how I want to live, and that’s just my principle.” The Raleigh’s ceilings range from 10 feet to 14 feet. “Everyone should have one,” Marino continues. “It means you get one floor less, but it also means you have an apartment you want to live in.”
Marino has also designed the apartment interiors, which will feature a variety of white and black stone; many bathrooms will be clad in white and beige onyx, Marino says, “the colors of the sand and the beach.” The palette, he continues, is purposefully neutral, “but people can do whatever they want on the inside.” Sales will be handled by the brokerage Official.
Quality Service
All apartments will be managed by Rosewood, meaning residents can receive such benefits as turndown service, a personal trainer and other hotel-style services. Additionally, the complex will feature the US outpost of the famed Milanese restaurant Langosteria; not coincidentally, the restaurant’s Parisian branch is located in the Cheval Blanc hotel, also designed by Marino.
“Beyond the fact that the food is spectacular, [the Langosteria restaurant] is kind of a favorite of our customers,” Shvo says. (The natures of two restaurants at the property have yet to be disclosed.) Residents can have Langosteria’s cuisine delivered to their apartments, and the restaurant will provide cabana service on the beach. “At this price level, you expect to have anything, any time, anywhere that you want,” Shvo says.
This is a maxim that neatly encapsulates Shvo’s approach to the entire development. “I wanted to create a product that doesn’t exist in Miami, and doesn’t really exist in Florida at all,” he says. “I always find when I go to Miami that it really lacks quality and service.” Is that absence, he asks rhetorically, “because the customer who is really willing to pay for the service and true quality isn’t there? Or is the client not there because the quality doesn’t exist?”
Shvo has bet a lot of money on the latter. “I don’t really care what the answer is,” he says, adding: “I believe that for the Raleigh, really elevating it to an international-level product is the right thing.”