Armani/Casa’s $10M sales gallery is now open for business

Dezer Development and Related Group just opened Miami’s most expensive sales center: the $10 million gallery for Residences by Armani/Casa, an over-the-top luxury condo tower headed for Sunny Isles Beach.

The developers showed off their 8,500-square-foot gallery during an exclusive party Thursday night, where hundreds of flashy brokers and buyers showed up dressed to the nines.

There they perused the gallery’s three distinct sections: the model area, where a scale replica of the 56-story condo tower sits; the media area, where large flatscreens display marketing material; and the design gallery, which features a full selection of floorplans and finishes.

At the center of the Armani/Casa sales gallery is a life-sized replica of the building’s penthouse residence, Unit A, decked out with exotic materials like onyx and white gold leaf.

All of the building’s 308 units and common spaces were designed by the Armani/Casa Interior Design Studio, from which the project gets its name. This is the studio’s first venture into U.S. real estate, said Fabrice Gouffran, the managing director of Armani Group’s Hotels & Homes division.

“It was of course a question of opportunity,” Gouffran told The Real Deal. “We had been pitched in the past, but did not have any other proposals before that matched what we got here in Miami.”

And this likely won’t be the studio’s last foray in a project stateside: Gouffran said Armani is looking at other destination cities like New York, but those plans are still preliminary.

Related and Dezer expect to break ground on the tower within the next month, with a completion date slated for 2018. According to data from the latest ISG report, 60 percent of the building’s units have been sold so far.

Located at 18325 Collins Avenue, Armani/Casa will boast amenities like an upscale restaurant, cigar room, fitness center with ocean views and a two-story spa that offers treatment indoor and outdoor treatments.

This isn’t the first confluence of real estate and a luxury brand, or even South Florida’s first over-the-top sales gallery. Two other condo towers – Fendi Chateau and Porsche Design – have affiliated themselves with luxury fashion lines. And developers this cycle have engaged in an ever-escalating arms race to build lavish, expensive sales galleries that at times rival the costs of the very units they’re trying to sell.

Also coming to Sunny Isles Beach this spring is the $10 million sales gallery for the Estates at Acqualina, which promises its own array of luxe finishes and amenities.