Beachy 51-story condo planned for Edgewater

It was a Tuesday night in midsummer and yet women had to totter up the traffic-clogged road as valets leisurely worked the Terra Veritatis, the private Miami Beach residence of engineering mogul Billy Dean.

To help promote Biscayne Beach, a 51-story condo tower development planned for Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, Alicia Cervera Lamadrid, the second-generation managing partner of the Cervera family real estate dynasty, had landscaped part of Dean’s yard into a sandy volleyball court. Guests pulled up in speedboats to the light of the Tiki torches.

“I grew up in Miami, and if you grew up in this town, you grew up in Biscayne Bay, you just did,” Cervera said. “I don’t know when that stopped, but at some point we lost it. This is about reengaging Biscayne Bay.”

The bayfront beach club at the heart of the condo project will feature white sand, swimming platforms and water sports.

The 399-unit project, where pre-construction sales have started around $500,000, is being jointly developed by Florida-based developer Eastview Development and global real estate investment firm GTIS Partners, and will feature the interior design of Thom Filicia, a co-star on the Emmy award-winning show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”

Filicia, 44, said he first laid eyes on Miami at age 9, visiting a grandfather retired to Bal Harbour.

“It’s like when you see a really beautiful young girl develop into a fabulous woman,” Filicia said. “That’s really what Miami’s becoming.”