Russian developers pay $10.5M for Denny’s site in Sunny Isles Beach

The Verzasca Group paid $10.5 million for the Denny’s site it’s planning to develop as a 19-story luxury tower in Sunny Isles Beach. 

The planned development will have 76 units priced from below $1 million to just under $2 million, and marks the third project in the United States for the Russian developers, who plan to invest $700 million on South Florida projects.

County records show that a company affiliated with the developers paid for the nearly 1-acre property at 17550 Collins Avenue on March 30. Sal Ganem Inc., headed by Salah Abi Ghanem, was the seller. The same private owner sold the group its Bay Harbor sites, Verzasca executive chairman Gennady Barsky previously told The Real Deal.

Developers obtained a $7.5 million balloon mortgage from Sal Ganem, according to Miami-Dade County records, for the Denny’s site, on the west side of Collins Avenue.

Units will average 1,600 square feet and will be priced at less than $1,000 per square foot, the developers told TRD.

“This is the first new construction on the west side of Collins in many years,” Barsky told TRD. “Not much has changed hands. The west side is commercial and there are very few [residential] buildings. We’re going to be the the first company to build a luxury condo project with the same quality finishes and amenities you get on the water — for less.”