South American buyer pays record $5.5M for “The Ark” in Golden Beach

480 Ocean Boulevard and Chad Carroll
480 Ocean Boulevard and Chad Carroll

If it’s good enough for Noah and his eclectic animal collection, it’s probably worthy of Miami’s luxury real estate market.

A South American buyer just paid $5.5 million for a Golden Beach spec mansion known as “the Ark,” marking the ritzy oceanfront town’s highest price for a non-waterfront home.

Listing agent Chad Carroll of Douglas Elliman told The Real Deal that a South American — whom he declined to name — closed on the 8,350-square-foot mansion at 480 Ocean Boulevard on Friday. The sale works out to just below $659 per square foot.

Carroll represented the seller, a limited liability company controlled by attorney Mark Pomeranz. County records show Pomeranz’s company picked up the 15,000 square feet of land where “the Ark” was built for $800,000 in 2011.

The six-bedroom, eight-bathroom home’s most striking feature is its angular architecture. Unlike most modern homes that are square, Carroll said, 480 Ocean Boulevard’s facades are sharply pointed.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

The home’s main living space is where it earns its namesake: a massive 20-foot glass atrium, formed in the shape of a ship’s bow, juts out of the home’s northern exposure above a small reflecting pond.

Other features range from imported Italian marble to a rooftop deck and smart home systems. The buyers also picked up a roughly $385,000 furniture package from Italian supplier Meridiani.

The Ark first hit the market in mid-year 2015 with a preconstruction asking price of $7.7 million, according to the owner’s development consultant Jacob Abramson of Miami Golden Properties. Carroll and his team came on board in March with a fresh ask of just under $6 million, which he said drew a contract within 30 days. The closing took five months.

Though the deal came at a discount of more than $2 million from the original ask, Abramson said the difference was made up through a $2.75 million loan from the seller at a 10 percent interest rate.

The sale also pushes past Golden Beach’s previous record for a dry-lot home, which Abramson said was set by $5.45 million purchase of 584 Ocean Boulevard in July 2015.