South American buyer pays $14.5 million for vacant lot on Indian Creek Island

A South American buyer has paid $14.5 million for a vacant lot at 2 Indian Creek Drive on Miami Beach’s Indian Creek Island, The Real Deal has learned. The property, which was listed for $16.9 million, was sold by an Indian Creek Property Investments, a Florida limited liability company based in Miami.

The deal comes about a week after singer Julio Iglesias purchased the nearby 7 Indian Creek for $15.2 million, as The Real Deal first reported.

“[The owner] was looking to sell, and bought the property a few years ago for considerably less, and is now selling it to take advantage of other opportunities,” said Nelson Gonzalez, a senior vice president at Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell, who represented the seller.

The seller had acquired the property in 2004 for $7.67 million, according to the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser’s office.

“I don’t think [the buyer] is going to build right away. I think he’s just looking to seize value now, and feels that the prices are going to go way up rather quickly,” Gonzalez said.

David Hasbun, a managing director at Brokers International Group, represented the buyer.

He said the property would likely not see any construction, however, as the buyer had recently purchased another property in the area on which he intends to build his second home.

“This is an investment,” he said.

The site had an assessed value of $7.2 million in 2011, according to county records.

“There were only two lots on the market,” Hasbun said. “There was 9 Indian Creek, which recently sold for $19.2 million, so there’s no more land on this island. So we expect a good increase in price in the next few years.”