It looks like Gil Dezer is expanding from his stomping ground in Sunny Isles Beach.
The developer just won court approval for the $28.5 million purchase of a Hillsboro Beach development site, which is being sold out of bankruptcy by embattled home builder John Kennelly.
Dezer is now locked in to purchase just over 11 acres of vacant, oceanfront land at 1174-1185 Hillsboro Mile, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The land could house up to 168 residential units. A spokesperson for Dezer told The Real Deal that the developer doesn’t have any immediate plans and is “considering all options.”
He recently told TRD that he was working on a new condo tower with its own car elevator similar to his recently completed Porsche Design Tower.
The Hillsboro Beach land was previously supposed to be sold to a company called Dome Realty for $35 million in an agreement struck last month, but that deal and two others failed to close before the bankruptcy court’s November 14 deadline, the Journal reported.
By swooping in at the last minute, Dezer appears to have scored a steep discount. SVN Moecker Realty, which was tapped to market the land, had originally expected the site to fetch more than $60 million.
Kennelly was forced to sell the land and several other sites to stave off a $38 million foreclosure judgment from lender BridgeInvest.
Among Kennelly’s other approved sales in bankruptcy court: 13th Floor Investments’ $8.75 million bid for 16 acres of single-family home sites at 6495 Boynton Beach Boulevard, along with 39 lots inside the Enclave at Boynton Waters community, a 9,000-square-foot site at 2886 Northeast 30th Street in Lighthouse Point and an 18,400-square-foot site at 2511 North Riverside Drive in Pompano Beach. [South Florida Business Journal] — Sean Stewart-Muniz