Northeastern family pays $5M for duplex penthouse at the Wave in Fort Lauderdale

A wealthy family is riding the wave of Northeasterners buying up luxury homes in South Florida.

The family just plunked down $5 million for the top two floors of the Wave on Bayshore, an 11-story boutique condo project in Fort Lauderdale, marking the city’s highest price for a non-waterfront condo.

Douglas Elliman’s Dan Teixeira, the project’s listing agent, told The Real Deal that the buyers are combining what was to be the Wave’s two full-floor penthouses into a single unit.

“Not every building you can do this with, because typically you have a penthouse unit, and below it you have inferior units and things like electric don’t line up,” Teixeira said.

Measuring 6,686 square feet, the two-story pad will have six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and a wraparound terrace on both floors. It will also have a grand living area with 20-foot ceilings and full-height windows.

Renderings of The Wave in Fort Lauderdale

Since the penthouses had identical floor plans, the buyers aren’t planning many alterations, Teixeira said. The chief difference will be a private elevator running only between those two units. They’ll be delivered as raw spaces.

Teixeira said this deal pares the Wave’s total number of units down from 18 to 17, though he said he’s in talks with another buyer to combine another two units. Besides the newly bought penthouse, units at the building come two to a floor and start at $1 million.

The agent declined to name the buyers, saying only that it’s a well-known family that previously spent a lot of time in Palm Beach. He said the family was sold on the Wave’s namesake architecture, which mimics the city’s famous wavey beach walls along A1A.

Developed by Rick Rosan and Jere Lucey’s Oak Tree Management, the Wave is expected to break ground in the fourth quarter of this year and wrap up construction by end-year 2017. The project has an expected sellout of $30 million.