Joe’s Stone Crab owner Stephen Sawitz pays $5M for Miami Beach home

2830 Sunset Drive. Inset: Stephen Sawitz
2830 Sunset Drive. Inset: Stephen Sawitz

Updated 2:55 p.m., Nov. 16: The Hertzberg family just sold a Sunset Islands home they renovated to Stephen Sawitz for $5.4 million. 

Records show  Sontag LLC, an entity controlled by Miami attorney Robert Hertzberg, sold the six-bedroom house at 2830 Sunset Drive to the owner of Joe’s Stone Crab. Hertzberg is married to Jill Hertzberg of Coldwell Banker’s The Jills team – which represented both sides of the deal.

Robert, Jill and their kids Danny and Hillary Hertzberg bought the house, gut-renovated it and flipped it to Sawitz, Danny and Hillary told The Real Deal. “The architecture was incredible on the property so we felt it warranted a full renovation,” Danny Hertzberg told TRD.

It sold for just less than $1,000 per square foot, nearly double its last sale in 2015. In 2015, Sontag LLC paid $2.85 million for the house. The entity was previously managed by Douglas Elliman’s Jay Parker.

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The 5,647-square-foot Art Deco home was designed by architect Martin Luther Hampton and completed in 1936. Renovations include a new kitchen with Viking appliances, Waterworks fixtures, modern finishes, preserved ironwork and an upgraded master suite and bathroom, according to the listing. Records show Robert Hertzberg filed a notice of commencement for an interior remodel and addition in January and terminated it earlier this month.

The home sits on a 15,475-square-foot dry lot on Sunset Island 1 and includes a separate two-bedroom guesthouse and pool. It was listed for $5.8 million in September, according to Redfin.

“We listed the property and it sold that first week on the market,” Danny Hertzberg said. “It shows there’s a real demand for architectural homes from the ’30s and ’40s.”

Sawitz is the great grandson of Joe’s Stone Crab founder Joe Weiss, who opened the Miami Beach institution in 1913. Records show he also owns a house on Nautilus Drive, which is not on the market.