Auberge Miami to celebrate opening of $2M sales gallery as legacy continues

Auberge Residences & Spa Miami, the Related Group’s latest development in the Arts & Entertainment District, is celebrating the launch of its $2 million sales gallery as Jon Paul Perez takes the helm of his first condominium project.

Two months after sales began, the 60-story, 363-unit tower has more than 70 units reserved, or about 20 percent, said Perez, vice president of Related and scion of company chairman and CEO Jorge Perez. About half of those units were sold to Mexicans, with the remainder to buyers from Argentina, Turkey, Brazil, Colombia and the Northeast.

“We feel pretty good, because (a) our sales are going well, and (b), you’re starting to see some projects that maybe should never have been built close down, so we’ll see a drop in construction prices,” Perez told The Real Deal.

At Auberge Miami, prices range from $350,000 for a one-bedroom unit to $3.9 million for a five-bedroom penthouse. The average size of a unit is 1,600 square feet, the average price $850,000, and the average price per square foot is about $600, Perez said. That compares to $800 to $850 per square foot at Related’s own Paraiso project a mile-and-a-half away.

Carlos Rosso, Related’s president of its condo development division, said his capital partners wanted to go ahead and launch the project at relatively lower prices. He declined to name the investors. Related, along with its partners acquired the property for $57.3 million in 2014.

Designed by Arquitectonica, with interiors by Piero Lissoni and landscaping by Enzo Enea, Auberge Residences & Spa Miami will be the luxe Auberge brand’s first entree into Miami, following Auberge Beach Residences & Spa Fort Lauderdale. The Miami tower will include a 200-seat ground-floor restaurant, Napa Bistro, and a spa on the 12th floor pool deck.

“The idea is you live here, you can take your private elevator to go to the restaurant, have dinner, go to the Arsht center and come back,” Rosso told TRD. “It’s boutique luxury living in downtown Miami.”

Eventually, the 2.8-acre project will include three towers, with a total of about 1,400 units.

Auberge Miami’s new sales gallery will be feted at an event Wednesday night, with more than 500 guests expected. Related spent more than $2 million on its 3,000-square-foot gallery, which includes a model kitchen and bath, a wine room and a scale model of the 60-story Auberge tower, all geared to offer buyers a glimpse of the final product, Perez said.

“We wanted to show just what the finishes and quality will be,” he said. Art, which will be a key component of the project, is also on display in the sales gallery, including Botero’s “Woman on a Horse” sculpture in the outdoor garden area. The project will also have a $2 million sculpture by Jaume Plensa and a giant red sphere by Julio Le Parc.

Perez joined Related in 2012, after spending six years working for the Related Companies in New York following his graduation from the University of Miami.

“It was a very good learning experience and it’s not your father’s company, so there was no special treatment,” he told TRD. “I had to make a name for myself there and earn my father’s respect” before his father asked him to come work for the Related Group.

In South Florida, Perez started in Related’s rental division, working on the Manor in Plantation, a 200-unit development Related sold in 2014. His next project was Town City Center, a 365-unit rental project in Pembroke Pines. Half of that development is now open and half is under construction and will open in a month, he said.

Moving to the condo side more recently, Perez worked under Sonia Figueroa at One Paraiso to get a first-hand look at the sales and marketing process.

Now, Auberge represents the first condo project in which he is the lead developer, reporting directly to Rosso.

Groundbreaking for the project is expected in a year, and construction will take 30 months, Perez said.