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The most expensive condominium on Miami Beach gets listed for a cool $65 million.
The most expensive condo on Miami Beach gets listed for a cool $65 million.
WELCOME HOME! Carlo Gambino, executive vice president of Douglas Elliman Florida, recently listed a tri-level penthouse in Miami Beach’s exclusive Apogee building that he calls the “best apartment south of New York City.”
The 8,271-square-foot unit, designed by Miami’s PH Design Studio Group—known for their work on the Gianni Versace mansion—has five bedrooms, seven full baths, one half bath, and a 7,000-squarefoot private rooftop terrace complete with a pool, Jacuzzi, cabana, outdoor kitchen, and movie theater. The price for all this opulence? An astounding $65 million, which would break the Miami record previously set by Douglas Elliman when it sold the $60 million penthouse at Faena House in late 2015.
“It’s the largest and nicest penthouse in the building,” says Gambino. “I’ve been selling real estate for over 22 years in Miami Beach, and it’s the best unit I have ever seen.”
The formal living room area with its 20-foot-high ceilings is anchored by a magnificent glass spiral staircase that cost close to $1 million. ƨʃʃƨƭƣƭƞ Ʃƚơƞ: Connecting two of the three floors of the $65 million penthouse in the sky, the sculptural staircase is truly a feat RIBHQJLQHHULQJ
Located at 800 South Pointe Drive in Miami Beach’s posh South of Fifth neighborhood, Unit 2204 is a contemporary penthouse that was purchased new in 2008 for $16.5 million by entrepreneur William Duker, who then spent the next five years completing it to perfection. The stone used for the floors and walls cost more than $1 million alone, without installation.
“It took six months to design and then a year to get through the permitting process,” Gambino says. “The owner also removed some of the structural concrete slabs to create a magnificent glass staircase and corridor. He replaced cement with glass, and that process took an extremely long time.”
The result is a stunning, two-story glass staircase—the focal point of the living room. Designed by Faour Glass Technologies, that feature cost close to $1 million, says Gambino, who notes that “the entire unit was done with the most exquisite taste and attention to detail—and the most expensive materials.”
Spanning the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th floors, the unit actually has more exterior space than interior, with a total of 13,149 square feet of outside terraces.
Though technically lived in, the apartment is more like new; according to Gambino, Duker resides in upstate New York and did not use the home as his primary residence. Now he’s selling the unit, Gambino says, to spend time sailing the Caribbean and the Mediterranean on his new 270-foot sailing yacht, Sybaris.
So what is the buyer pool for a record-breaking unit like this? “Most of the sales of similar properties have been to the Northeast market—hedge fund managers from New York City,” Gambino says. “That’s the biggest market, but I just had a well-known gentleman from Dubai who came to see it, so the Middle East would be another source of this type of clientele, as would Russia. It’s not a Hollywood buyer. Hollywood can’t afford a $65 million unit.” elliman.com
“THE ENTIRE UNIT WAS DONE WITH THE MOST EXQUISITE TASTE AND ATTENTION TO DETAIL—AND THE MOST EXPENSIVE MATERIALS.” —CARLO GAMBINO