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South Florida report

Fashion icon Hilfiger sets sites on South Beach Hotel; Another 1,000-foot tower proposed for Downtown Miami; Celeb deals keep churning

The Raleigh Hotel
The Raleigh Hotel

Hilfiger buys SoBe hotel

Fashion icon Tommy Hilfiger has his sights set on South Beach to launch a new hospitality venture.

Hilfiger in April purchased the Raleigh Hotel at 1775 Collins Avenue for an undisclosed price. The current owners, New York developer David Edelstein and SBE founder and CEO Sam Nazarian, paid $55 million for the 105-room hotel in December 2012. If he closes on the acquisition, Hilfiger would extensively renovate the Raleigh and make it the flagship property of Hilfiger Hospitality.

The art deco hotel was built in 1940. Nazarian’s company is expected to continue operating the Raleigh after the sale.

Miami Beach has had a couple of notable hotel trades lately, including the $12.5 million sale of the Cavalier South Beach at 1320 Ocean Drive and $11 million sale of Hotel Eva at 1506 Collins Avenue.

Another record tower?

A mini-race to build Florida’s tallest skyscraper is heating up in Greater Downtown Miami.

The latest developer to propose a high-rise that would exceed 1,000 feet is Swire Properties, which is currently building the massive Brickell City Centre mixed-use project in Miami’s financial district. As part of City Centre, Swire submitted plans for a 1,049-foot mixed-use tower on its Brickell Avenue land. If approved by the City of Miami and Federal Aviation Administration, the tower would be the tallest in the state.

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Another developer, Tibor Hollo, already has FAA approval for a 1,010-foot high-rise on Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami. Hollo expressed skepticism over Swire’s chances of getting the go-ahead for a taller building directly on the busy Brickell Avenue.

Jeffrey Berkowitz also has approvals to construct a 1,000-foot observation tower called SkyRise Miami on a downtown site owned by Bayside Marketplace.

A-list market sizzles

The celebrity churn continued in recent weeks as boldfaced names traded pricey Miami residences.

The list includes billionaire fashion mogul Lawrence Stroll, who paid $13.5 million for a condo on ritzy Fisher Island near Miami Beach. The Canadian bought the four-bedroom unit from George Sherman, former chairman of Campbell Soup. In North Miami Beach, Israeli soccer star Tal Ben Haim dropped nearly $2 million for a waterfront residence in the gated Eastern Shores community.

On the selling side, Kim Kardashian ex Kris Humphries sold a Miami Beach condo for about $1.7 million. The Boston Celtics forward made a profit of nearly $700,000 on the sale of the Blue Diamond unit.

In northwestern Broward County’s Parkland, the former home of Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino is listed for $2.95 million, which is what the Miami Dolphins legend paid for the property in 2005.

For more stories from TRD’s South Florida site, click here.