SoFla market report: Prominent Miami hotel owner dies, Downtown condo market cools … & more

From the April issue: Martin Taplin, a prominent Miami real estate developer and art collector who owned the Sagamore Hotel in South Beach, died last month after falling from the 25th-floor balcony of a penthouse in Bal Harbour. Police are investigating whether he fell accidentally or committed suicide. Taplin was 77.

Sinking under a mound of debt, Taplin’s oceanfront hotel was facing a balloon payment of $31.5 million plus $14 million in interest due on April 11, sources said. In early March, Taplin signed a contract to sell the property for $63 million to the Fort Lauderdale-based InSite Group, after reportedly already signing a different deal to sell the hotel. Taplin and his partners had faced hard financial times before, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2011. [more]