Chateau Group and Fortune International are significantly expanding the scope of their future Sunny Isles Beach development by incorporating the former site of the Ocean Palm Motel, The Real Deal has learned.
A Chateau-managed company sold the former Ocean Palm property at 15795 Collins Avenue last Friday to Sunny Isles OB Venture, which was created by the Chateau/Fortune partnership, according to Miami-Dade County records. The county recorded the $40 million transaction on Monday.
The sales center for Chateau’s luxury Chateau Beach Residences is currently located on the property, according to Manuel Grosskopf, who runs Chateau Group with his father, Sergio.
Through a company called Sunny Isles Property Venture, Chateau and Fortune surprisingly purchased an adjacent property at 15701 Collins Avenue for $41 million in a November foreclosure auction. A 52-story tower called Solis Resort Spa & Residences was supposed to be developed on the property. Construction of Solis began in 2007, but little progress was made before the project stalled.
Sunny Isles Property obtained a $25 million loan for the former Solis property from Mexico-based Banco Inbursa in December. In conjunction with the sale of the former Ocean Palm property, an amended mortgage increasing the loan balance to $49 million was filed on Friday. Both properties are part of the loan collateral.
The latest transaction gives Chateau and Fortune control of about two acres of developable oceanfront land in Sunny Isles, one of the hottest markets for condo construction in South Florida. Grosskopf told TRD the companies are still working on development plans for the site and hope to begin marketing the project by the end of this year or early in 2015.
“The idea is to combine the two sites and put a beautiful building” there, Grosskopf said. The venture is still just a few months into the process. “We’re trying to put the right program together for this amazing oceanfront property.”
Meanwhile, construction of the 84-unit Chateau Beach at 17475 Collins Avenue is nearly 70 percent complete, Grosskopf said. Only two unsold units remain.
On Friday, Chateau is hosting a groundbreaking ceremony for its Chateau Ocean Residences in Surfside. About half of the project’s 58 units are reserved, Grosskopf said. The developer is set to begin converting those reservations to hard contracts.