Talk about a ghoulish investment move: Art Falcone just sold off a Boca Raton cemetery for $16.5 million — nearly triple what he paid for it more than a decade ago.
Falcone and his Boca real estate firm sold the Gardens Memorial Park and Cemetery at 4103 North Military trail to a Florida company named Boca Memorial Holdings. It’s managed by Matthew H. Maschler, a local Realtor and lawyer — the true buyer is unknown.
An aerial view of the cemetery grounds
The deal covers 76,266 square feet of cemetery facilities, plus about 19 acres of land — and who knows how many bodies. Falcone purchased the cemetery through a holding company named DFG Group in 2003. He paid $5.5 million, or about $72 per square foot.
Some of the facility’s interment options include: mausoleums, crypts and niches — most of which are encased in marble, according to its website.
Art Falcone
Now through a deed filed this week, the developer has cleared almost $216 per square foot — a price that equates to just under triple what he paid 13 years ago.
Falcone is one of the lead principals developing Miami Worldcenter, the massive 30-acre project currently underway in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood. Recently, the developers announced a big change: no longer would Worldcenter be an enclosed mall. Instead, the Worldcenter team is aiming for a High-Street retail option that resembles Lincoln Road.